Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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During the course of the year the Minister changed his mind in regard to funding raised by virtue of the property tax in that only a particular percentage of it is now to be reimbursed to local authorities, which proposal Fianna Fail does not support. The Minister is keeping his commitment in this regard by virtue of what is proposed in this Bill.

In regard to the proposed transfer of €600 million from the fund to Irish Water, how much of this will come back next year to local authorities in the service level agreement, agreement on which the Minister mentioned earlier is nearing conclusion? Will local authorities in the main be doing next year what they did last year? How much of the €600 million will go towards paying the salaries and administration costs of Irish Water, including in respect of the recently announced additional staff? In other words, how much of the €600 million will go towards administration of what appears to be a second master given that staff, both management and on the ground, in local authorities associated with water services will continue to do what they have being doing? It now appears that additional funding is to be made available to pay management in Irish Water and the costs associated with its establishment yet it will in effect only be overseeing what has always been done by the local authorities. Is it an accounting exercise to do the same thing?

We were told in the context of the establishment of Irish Water that there would be huge reform. Many of the management personnel recruited to Irish Water are former local authority staff. Many staff of the local authorities whose remit is responsibility for water services, among other aspects, will continue to have responsibility in this regard and their pay will have to reflect this. Have staff who have moved from the local authority system to Irish Water been paid severance payments by the State in respect of that move and for how many more years will this be the case? Was it not the case that separate funding was to be obtained from the EU to fund this into the future? As things stand, there will be a double payment on the part of users in the form of water charges when introduced.