Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Joe Higgins prefers to pick figures off the top of his head. The sum of €1,000 per family is way off the mark and he knows it. People are paying, through their taxes, for the treatment of good quality water at a cost of €1 billion. It comes from ordinary working people, as Deputy Joe Higgins call them. They are already paying through their taxes. I am not in a position to tell Deputy Higgins what funds will be made available to the water metering programme because we are in the final stages of a tendering programme for regional contracts, which will roll out the metering programme to 1.1 million households.

Plumbing jobs will be created under the water metering programme. We will also create more jobs through further investment in the water sector which the country is not in a position to afford at present. In the contracts that have been put out to tender I have provided that 25% of the employees should be persons assigned to complete their apprenticeships or come from the unemployment register. They particularly target people and skills that were available in the construction industry in the past that we can use for the water metering programme.

I do not subscribe to the Deputy's negative connotations in this matter. We have very important work to do in ensuring a plentiful supply of good quality water for job creation, investment and households in the future.

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