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

Thank you, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle, for permitting the suspension of the debate for 45 minutes to allow time for the Minister to come back into the Chamber and participate in the debate. It also gives Members an opportunity to respond in a constructive fashion to the motion before the House. In addition, many questions may be asked, clarifications sought and propositions put, but ultimately when it comes to a vote people will make an informed decision on whether to support this motion. I welcome the Minister back to the House for that purpose and hope he will continue to partake in the debate from here onwards.

I specifically want to raise the issue of Irish Water no longer having to pay the €60 million promised in commercial rates to local authorities. It appears this has been done to reduce Irish Water's expenditure in order to help this proposal pass the Eurostat test. Is that test in March or is it not? In the course of an earlier submission, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Howlin, made comments to the effect that it has been already approved. Has it been approved by the appropriate authority or is he depending on a telephone call to Commissioner Hogan in order for that to have passed the test?

Many local authorities have provided within their budgets, which take place this week, for the income that was to be derived from Irish Water with those assets having been transferred to Irish Water. Does the Minister remember the networks with €11 billion worth of assets? Calculations were made by local authorities some of which have passed budgets. Some may have to reconvene their members to rectify a discrepancy. Will the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government be asked to subvent local authorities by this amount? If so, what guarantees are in place that the local or central Government fund will not be reduced by €60 million and nobody will be any the wiser as to whether the money was ever going to be made available to them? That needs to be clarified.

Local authorities around the country are deliberating over tight budgets. In the absence of even €200,000, they may have to suspend disability grants and house adaptation grants for the elderly at €15,000 a pop. That would save Revenue the cost of the Fair Deal, which is up to €50,000 a year.

In County Offaly, for example, applicants are being told to wait for three to five years because the funds are not available. If the funds do not exist, it will cost €15 million for those people to be housed in nursing homes under the Fair Deal scheme. Meanwhile, the Minister cannot provide €1 million to rectify that in a once-off payment to clear backlogs.

Apart from that, when local authorities wanted to make an effort to address those issues, the Minister pulled the rug from under them because they now do not have from Irish Water the commercial rates they get from other utilities.

See this speech in context