Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will start with Deputy Eoin Ó Broin's last question and work backwards. I take his point about service level agreements being a way of achieving certainty on funding for Irish Water. I have engaged with the commissioner on this matter. The Water Services Bill will allow us to provide for the preparation of multi-annual strategic funding plans for Irish Water as part of a framework to ensure we will invest what we need to invest. With Irish Water, we will be guided by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities. It will be up to the Oireachtas on an annual basis to approve the allocation of funding. That is an important role played by the Oireachtas. The Minister for Finance and I are working to ensure our plans for the funding of Irish Water will be aligned with and reflected in his ten-year national investment plan. This year the Cabinet noted the funding that would be required by Irish Water up to 2021. It is my responsibility, in working with the Oireachtas, to deliver it. It will be clear to everyone what is required from Irish Water on an annual basis in terms of the capital and current spend. My obligation will be to deliver it each year and it will be for the Oireachtas to vote it through.

On wastewater treatment and action by the European Union, now that the questions about the future funding of Irish Water have been clarified and resolved in the Water Services Bill, we can embark on a programme of work to ensure we can upgrade and make the necessary investments. We will do this while taking account of the EPA's reports and the requirements under the directive. Separate from Irish Water, other subheads in the budget show an increase in funding for work related to water quality since last year. Irish Water also has investments to make.

In 2016 Irish Water identified the potential for savings from the domestic metering programme to be used to fund work on priority non-domestic meter upgrades which would underpin the non-domestic revenue stream and the urgent provision of strategic water and wastewater infrastructure to enable priority development lands to be opened up. The money will move into that area in so far as Irish Water's investments are concerned.

The changes to the funding model on the back of the Water Services Bill, the debate on which I hope will conclude in the Seanad this week, will not affect our capital investment in 2018. It has been secured and will be made.