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

On the local development committees, the Minister, Deputy Ring and I had a number of engagements on this as we began this transfer process, to make sure that we were both clear about where the responsibility would lie and that there would not be any difficulties or interruptions to that important work. It is something on which we continue to liaise. The matter of bringing in the new Minister is one for the committee. The Minister, Deputy Ring is currently in another committee going through the Revised Estimate for his Department.

The funding that was used to facilitate the refunds for Irish Water and maintain the suspension of charges was from funding that would have been foregone, in that instance, for Irish Water and the administrative costs. That comes from general Exchequer funding. It is for the Minister for Finance and for Public Expenditure and Reform to manage that element of the overall funding envelope for each Department and to make sure that funding is available for this aspect of our work. As far as I am concerned in the Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government, the money comes in from the Exchequer and then we allocate it to Irish Water.