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

There was a commitment in the memorandum of understanding that we would introduce a property tax and water charges in 2013. We have the property tax but will not have water charges until 2015. The Deputy needs to get his history correct.

I wish to thank the staff of local authorities who are in difficulty at the moment trying to manage supplies along the coastline of our country. Equally, in the Dublin area, they are managing the water supply on a daily and hourly basis to ensure that the Deputy's constituents have an adequate supply. I thank them for that. We will continue to employ those staff because of their knowledge and corporate memory. They have the necessary expertise built up to ensure that this situation continues. We are going to use Irish Water, a commercial semi-state company in public ownership, to get additional moneys to invest in our water services for the future. The Deputy did not give me an answer as to where we will get the money in a realistic sense. He just went on with the old story about the bondholders.

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