Mr. John Tierney:

On the questions about Irish Water and the transition office, the position was explained the last day by the departmental officials. It is an arrangement between local government and the Department directly, as opposed to something that is governed by Irish Water. From our perspective, it was beneficial from the point of view of initial co-ordination, fact-facting and streamlinging the flow of information, but the breakdown of the figure would have to come from either the water services transition office or the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. The free allowance is a matter of Government policy. I invite Mr. Dempsey to respond on the issue of levies.