Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I wish to stick to this broad topic of Irish Water for my first round of questions, but if I have time I will return to the issue of land aggregation. The Department gave a subvention to Irish Water of €439 million in 2014, €399 million this year - 2015 - and €479 million next year. In addition, there are direct payments from the Central Fund. We will add it all up. Between the Department’s subvention from 2014 to 2016, the loans provided by the National Pensions Reserve Fund, and the direct contribution from the Central Fund through the Department of Finance, the transfer to Irish Water will be €2.415 billion by the end of 2016, not to mention future subventions that seem to be built into the system.

Irish Water has a service level agreement with each local authority in respect of the services provided. When the HSE comes before the committee, if it gives an agency or private organisation a contract it has a service level agreement under section 38 or section 39. It could be paying an agency €50 million to provide a service. In view of the fact that the Department is providing €399 million this year and €479 million next year straight out of the Local Government Fund, could someone describe the service level agreement that has been drawn up between the Department and Irish Water in order that everyone knows what is being provided for the investment? I wish to hear about the service level agreement. I could not contemplate for a moment that the Department would hand over such an amount of money without a full service level agreement. If the HSE was paying an agency for a service, we would tackle it, and if Irish Water was handing money over without a service level agreement there would be hell to pay. I am starting at the top. Could Mr. McCarthy talk to me about the service level agreement between the Department and Irish Water in respect of the annual subvention? What does he expect the public to get for the subvention? Is there a service level agreement in place?