Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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On this basis, an accurate figure for full subsidy of the schemes would be approximately €4.9 million annually. Clearly this is not a hard fact. It would be very useful if it were possible to have an indicative figure for our private deliberations next week. What is the ballpark figure for a 100% subsidy? While there has not been a demand for group water schemes until now, part of this is because group water schemes have seen the introduction of water charges. If water charges for the vast majority of public water service users are abolished and the expert group's recommendations are accepted in the round and it becomes Government policy it will mean the vast majority of households will not pay a metered domestic charge on an annual basis. We then need to know if we were to translate this situation to members of group water schemes what would it cost. On the basis of Ms Graham's figures it would come in at approximately €4.9 million, but this is as speculative as the averages.