Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

While we all understand the pressure the previous Government was under, Irish Water had been left on the to-do list signed with the troika.

As I said, however, I do not really want to get into an argy-bargy with the Deputy. I thank him for his remarks, because it is comforting, particularly with regard to my staff person who was with me in the car and had a very frightening experience, and who was understandably extremely upset. The gardaí took grief, particularly women gardaí. Over-sexualised imagery was being used in the protests and comments were made as well, particularly to young male gardaí.

As regards Irish Water, Deputy Cowen asked about the status of EUROSTAT, which is similar to our Central Statistics Office, or CSO. These are august, independent organisations and, as any economist and anybody who has served in Government will tell the Deputy, they make their own decisions. For instance, the CSO publishes regular figures in Ireland in respect of economic activity, employment figures, unemployment figures and so on. All of these statistical bodies are resolutely independent, so there is no way the Irish Government will know the decision until such time as, in its own professional way, EUROSTAT, under EU law - and, indeed, the CSO under Irish law - takes its decision, which I understand will be some time at the end of the first quarter of 2015.

Under the market corporation test, the so-called MCT, the Government subvention as a percentage of the total, is 44%. There is a small change in the subvention level, as the CEO of Ervia and Irish Water set out on "Prime Time" last night - a change of around €21 million in respect of the rates which would formerly have been paid, potentially, by Irish Water. It should be remembered that the property and assets that were taken over are those of local authorities and, as such, rates were never paid on them. Therefore, an arrangement has essentially been made to continue that. The CEO said it made no material difference, but the difference this sounding model does make - and I know the Deputy appreciates it - is that instead of having the funding costs of Irish Water directly in our annual capital budgets, we can use the ESB and Bord Gáis model to raise funds via the selling of debt and bonds, largely to pension funds of workers throughout the world, including Ireland and elsewhere in the EU, when their pension funds choose to invest in a public utility such as Irish Water. Essentially, it is a way of making Ireland's investment capacity go further. We have done it for decades and we raised billions via the ESB and Bord Gáis. We are simply using the same model now, which means that we have more money to put into school buildings, hospitals, roads and all the other things that, understandably, everybody in this House is looking for nationally and at a local level.

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