Mr. Séamas Ó Tuathail:

I may have dealt with the query raised by Deputy O'Dea at paragraph 2.3 of my submission but I will go through it very briefly. I am not disagreeing totally with Ms Graham in this matter either. The powers which had been provided under statute for the water authorities under section 31 of the 2007 Act would not seem to have been transferred and were deleted. Section 7(2) of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 provides that references to a water services authority under the 2007 Act in so far as they relate to functions transferred under the No. 2 Act would be construed as references to Irish Water. I concluded from that that references to a water services authority in section 31 of the 2007 Act remain as references to local authorities.