Ms Maria Graham:

The Deputy is correct. There are two types of schemes - those with their own private source and their own private network and those which purchase the public water from the public utility, having previously done so from the local authority and then owned the network. They would also receive capital funding and subsidy from the State but at a lesser level which reflects the fact that they have a different cost structure. There are provisions for the takeover of such schemes but as this reform has gone on, and we are looking at the rural water sector, some of these would have fallen into abeyance. What we have found is that some schemes that were group water schemes no longer have committees. The landscape is complicated.