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

From what the Minister has said, it appears to me that his discussions with the CSO centred around its informing the Minister of the rules and his obligations under those rules. Based on that information, EUROSTAT will make an adjudication. However, the CSO, as an independent authority, cannot confirm whether the Minister is within the rules or meets the guidelines. Is the Minister aware that a journalist was informed recently by a senior official in the Department of Finance that it is frantically looking at ways and means of dealing with this issue should the Government's proposals fail the EUROSTAT market test, and that the same official is of the opinion that the Government would meet the requirement that the deficit be less than 3% of GDP given the forthcoming increase in taxation revenues? However, this does not get around the situation in which the Government may find itself, as the costs associated with that subvention will be back on the balance sheet and there will be no prospect of Irish Water borrowing off-balance-sheet from the markets. This being the case, it will be back on the Government's agenda to fund the forthcoming proposals from Irish Water mentioned by the Minister. Are we then back to a default position, which the Taoiseach mentioned some months ago when he was asked about this issue, with the public being faced with a 4% increase in taxation in order to fund the works that Irish Water believes the programme needs?

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