Ms Maria Graham:

At present, funding is being provided through the Department Vote. A small amount was allocated in the Estimates this year to fund the secretariat of that committee, and that will be provided by the Department. The secretariat is now in place. It is a five-member body, with three ex officiomembers made up of representatives of the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, the Environmental Protection Agency and An Fóram Uisce, the stakeholder forum on water. Those bodies will be asked to nominate their members within the coming week and the other two members will be appointed through the Public Appointments Service, PAS, State boards process. In the short term, one of the three ex officiomembers may be asked by the Minister to chair the secretariat in order to get the process up and running.

As Deputy Cowen is aware, I mentioned the function in regard to advice to the Minister on transparency and accountability but the other key responsibility is reporting to this committee on a quarterly basis in terms of performance against the business plan across five real metrics: infrastructure delivery and leakage reductions; cost reduction and efficiency improvements; improvements in water quality, including boil water notices; procurement, remuneration and staffing policies; and responsiveness to the needs of communities and enterprise. We hope that the body, which is expected to be up and running in the coming weeks, will be able to produce at least one report before the summer recess with which the committee can engage and that is the timeline to which we are currently working.

I note the Deputy's comments in regard to elected members. They are of vital importance and that is part of the ongoing information component. The service level agreement, SLA, was signed with the chief executives but they are acutely aware of their responsibility to their elected councils and that any change to the agreement would have to be discussed by those councils. However, I take the point that even if local authority members are directly involved in the contractual discussion, the broader view and strategic component of local government is critical to elected members. I will pass on those comments to the Minister and I am sure that Irish Water will take them on board in its ongoing engagement.