Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It was never intended that the assets would transfer on 1 January 2014. It was planned that transfers would take place on a phased basis. As work progressed on the identification and the various assets and liabilities became clear, there was a need to ensure that loans did not automatically transfer with the assets. As the Deputy is aware, because we discussed it in this House, legislation to underpin this was passed at the end of 2014 to ensure that assets could transfer this year. The transfer of outstanding assets will take place over the coming months and the process is expected to be largely concluded by June of this year. A licence arrangement applies under the service level agreements between Irish Water and the local authorities and thus the fact that assets have not fully legally transferred has not acted as an impediment to Irish Water from an operational or capital investment plan.

The Deputy asked whether the local authorities incurred additional expenditure as a result of this issue of timing. The straight answer is "No", they did not.

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