Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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Yes. The Comptroller and Auditor General has a paragraph in his report stating that in 2015 an amount of €427 million was transferred directly from the Exchequer in the form of a once-off grant payment to local authorities. It was to allow them to repay borrowings from the Housing Finance Agency that had been used to fund local authority water supply and treatment infrastructure that had since been transferred to Irish Water. In addition to the €700 million or so that went through the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government in respect of that issue, €427 million was transferred directly by the Exchequer from the Central Fund to local authorities to meet liabilities associated with the assets Irish Water took over, which liabilities were met by the taxpayer. Irish Water received these assets, minus the liabilities of €427 million met by the taxpayer from the Central Fund, in addition to the sum of €710 million that went through the Department of Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government, giving a total payment in 2015 of €1.137 billion. Is that the correct total?