Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Irish Water received €2.599 billion in Revenue payments over the past three years, and another €1.028 billion, which amounts to €3.6 billion approximately in payments from the State in that period. I acknowledge that Irish Water is not subject to audit by the Comptroller and Auditor General. I was in the Dáil when it was established and I spoke to the Minister at the time about the issue as I was a spokesperson. I always felt that it should be subject to audit, but that is the way it is. The figure I mentioned amounts to a substantial sum compared to the other semi-State bodies. Due to how Irish Water was initially structured, subsequent events and how everything panned out from a policy perspective, there is now a substantial transfer of taxpayer's money to it. Does the Department receive annual financial reports from Irish Water? If there is such a large tranche of taxpayers' money going to this body, and the Comptroller and Auditor General does not have the opportunity to audit its accounts, and the committee does not see its accounts, is the Department seeing detailed financial reports from Irish Water on income, expenditure, investment plans, etc?