Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael)

The idea of the independent assessment is to examine each and every one of the issues the Deputy raised. Nationally, more than 3,000 local authority staff work in water services. It would not make sense to move them all into a new quango, but that is a matter for the report. It will make recommendations on which the Government will decide. If there are staff transfers, they will need to be in accordance with the agreement with the trade unions.

I will give the Minister some information. My apologies - it is 'Deputy';. I must get used to him not being a Minister. I had a 14-year learning curve.

The figures from the water crisis in December are amazing. More than 3,297 people in local authorities came out during the Christmas period, only six days of which were working days, to examine 26,000 different problems. The total amount of man hours was in excess of 250,000. They were used effectively. Comparing these figures with those from Northern Ireland, the question is what went right down here and what went wrong up there.

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