Deputy Seán Fleming:

I am talking about the subvention that goes from the taxpayer to Irish Water. Who decides that? I will tell Mr. McCarthy who decides it. It is decided in one of the committee meetings in the annual Estimates that are currently ongoing. There is a figure in the Revised Estimates that the Department has published for 2015 for the subvention. That has to be voted on by the House in the annual Estimates process. That is who decides. I do not wish to cut across the select committee when it is discussing the Estimate, but as Accounting Officer, could Mr. McCarthy tell us how he arrived at the figure for the subvention to Irish Water to be included in the Department’s Estimates? I am shocked to hear the money is being handed over without even a sheet of paper to say what it should cover and that there is no service level agreement in place. If representatives of the HSE were before the committee and said they had handed over €399 million to service providers in the health and disability sector without a sheet of paper or a contract, we would excoriate them. Does Mr. McCarthy understand this simple view?