Mr. John McCarthy:

I would be the Accounting Officer for expenditure that goes to Irish Water through the local government fund or through the Vote. Irish Water is outside the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General. That issue was raised again in the course of legislation just before Christmas. The policy position that was taken by the Minister was that those arrangements should remain as is, primarily taking account of the extent to which Irish Water is accountable to the Oireachtas joint committee, but fundamentally because all of Irish Water's expenditure is subject to approval by the Commission for Energy Regulation. Of course, from an environmental point of view, Irish Water is accountable to the Environmental Protection Agency.