Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister and Minister of State for their presence at the meeting and for engaging in this process which is a pilot scheme. It is difficult enough to make suggestions in the absence of a full budget being available at this early stage, but I have a few questions.

The capital expenditure on housing will fall from €189 million this year to €92 million in the years 2014, 2015 and 2016. Is this amount sufficient to tackle social housing waiting lists? Is it almost whittling away at local authorities' functions in this area by virtue of housing associations, private finance or deals with NAMA becoming sufficient to meet the challenge of social housing needs across the country?

The Exchequer initiated a contribution at least at the start of this year of €175 million to the Local Government Fund and it was replaced by a €160 million contribution from the household charge. Some €110 million was collected, leaving a €65 million shortfall. Local authorities were bearing the brunt of that cut, during the course of the year and in the third quarter and fourth quarter, despite the Estimates that they had agreed earlier in the year. The Minister has been reducing the contribution to local authorities with low household charge payments. Will that trend continue in the context of the proposal on property tax next year?

It has been quoted that €500 million per annum will be derived from the property tax. How much of that will go to the Local Government Fund, how much of it will be retained by the Department and how much, by a process of elimination, will go back to the Central Fund?

How much must the Minister commit towards Irish Water next year? There has not yet been confirmation as to the cost, for example, of metering. When the committee met Bord Gáis last week on this issue, the cost from its perspective was estimated to be €450 million whereas Deputy Stanley mentioned that a report of which he had sight stated it could cost €1.2 billion. The existing cost of local authorities for maintenance of water services, based on the research that I have done, appears to be approximately €600 million per annum. There is that figure, the figure for metering which I ask the Minister to clarify and the charge to be imposed, and then one must measure that against the Minister's statement that he will have to supplement Irish Water in the coming years before it becomes self-sufficient. At what level will the Minister supplement Irish Water?

I have two questions on EU related programmes. I presume a large element of such programmes are co-funded by the European Union and it would be in all our interests that they would be retained and enhanced where possible. Can the Minister give a commitment that such will be the case in the forthcoming years?

What co-operation has there been with the Minister's counterpart in agriculture on the CAP proposals? Specifically, I refer to environmental issues and to the funding that may be available within that envelope of CAP. Will such funding be retained and controlled by the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government or its agencies for disbursement to the relevant sectors of society? For example, I am conscious of SACs throughout the country where REP schemes, which were to be put in place, have not been put in place. It is my information that there is a fair-sized sum that will be available under CAP within the envelope of environment that the Minister, Deputy Hogan, could garner for the public who need this and have not had comfort in this area vis-à-vis the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine.