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

I understood that 44% was the figure prior to the introduction of the new regime and the associated new costs. Apart from this, it is worrying that the Minister can neither confirm nor deny that a high-ranking Department of Finance official has stated that frantic efforts are being made to devise a mechanism to deal with this issue in the event that we fail that EUROSTAT test. I ask the Minister to speak with his colleague, Deputy Noonan, and confirm or deny that this is the case. If it is the case - I asked this question several months ago - what is plan B in the event that we fail the test? I do not think there is anything wrong with having a plan B in place. Suffice to say that in the absence of such a plan B, and given what we are hearing, they will be able to absolve the costs by virtue of increased revenue and still meet the 3% of GDP deficit target, as was envisaged initially. This paints a whole new picture as to the total and utter mismanagement of the process and this debacle since it began two years ago. As I have stated in recent weeks, the Government's credibility, let alone that of Irish Water, would be shot by the idea that so much effort, cost and funding from the taxpayers had gone into creating a model that could not do what it was supposed to do and what it said on the tin. I ask the Minister to confirm to the House as soon as possible that no efforts are being made to subvert the whole process, which he has stood steadfastly behind, as has his Government up to this point.

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