Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Will the €460 million be borrowed money? How will it be funded? Will it be counted in the context of the EUROSTAT test? We were told that the conservation grant will not be counted in the Irish Water grant. We are continually told that the idea behind establishing Irish Water is to save us billions of euro, but all we can see at present are additional costs. Obviously, the reason for keeping the €460 million off the balance sheet is so that money can be raised through bank loans and other money generating opportunities such as bonds or the like. At present, it appears that Irish Water is doing some of its funding through overdrafts. I believe we should hear about all of these savings we are supposed to be making.

With regard to the assets, the impression has been given that the water and wastewater system is in universally dire condition. However, there are a number of assets and when the Irish Water team appeared before the Oireachtas committee its members told us about them. They said:

This team scoped out the full project to deliver a new company with the capability to manage all of the public water and wastewater assets and deliver services to customers. That programme was to run from April 2012 to April 2015 – with one of the key milestones to ensure that we had all of the systems, processes and capabilities in place to take over €11 billion worth of assets from 1 January 2014. The budget as submitted by Bord Gáis for the programme was €150 million with a project contingency of €30 million.

We have paid an amount of money to take over those assets, yet it is not clear if they have been accounted for, taken over or even if there has been an audit of those assets.

There was a discussion earlier about the staff who run these services. It must be said that some fantastic work has been done over the years under the local authority system. The systems were run to the maximum efficiency and the same people will be running the same water and wastewater treatment systems, whether they are called local authority or Irish Water staff. It is not a new bunch of people who have come in to do it. In fact, it will be delivered in the same way it has been delivered over the years.

We need to know if the Government is borrowing this money. If it is, how much are we paying for it, where is it being borrowed from and at what rate is it being borrowed? Is it included in the EUROSTAT figures and, if not, how can it be accounted for?

See this speech in context