Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for clarifying the amount of funding his Department has provided to Irish Water. He stated on television recently that a figure of €180 million was open to being questioned by an Oireachtas committee, but we now know that is not the case because the money was raised by means of a commercial loan between the National Pensions Reserve Fund and Bord Gáis. A commercial loan worth €540 million was also raised from the NPRF for the provision of water meters.

Despite the fact that they have committed, as per the order of last week, in relation to the Freedom of Information Act, I want to question the Minister on the contribution made by the Minister of State, Deputy Fergus O'Dowd, subsequent to the motion placed before the Dáil a number of weeks ago.

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