Mr. Paul McGowan:

Our role is to ensure we do everything transparently and publish as much data and information as we can for public consumption. We must also ensure Irish Water operates as efficiently as possible. It has proposed - we have sanctioned this - a considerable amount of capital expenditure in the next two years. We will be working with the company to determine the priority projects to be funded from that overall capital spend. If Irish Water can carry out more capital works during that period than we have sanctioned and does so efficiently, we will allow the expenditure to proceed. The company will not be limited by the sanction we have given it.

The position is that water and wastewater services are not fit for purpose. Therefore, it is important that people register in order that Irish Water can obtain the revenue required to carry out the necessary works to improve water and wastewater services.

On the issue of contacting Irish Water, the contact centre is up and running and taking calls during normal business hours about the water and wastewater systems. There is an issue about contacting Irish Water out of hours, but the company is putting together a proposal to ensure a 24 hour contact centre will be put in place in order that all customer issues, for example, leaks on the road, can be taken on board and directions issued to the relevant work team to ensure the necessary work are carried out.

I hope I have answered Deputy James Bannon's questions to his satisfaction.