Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

It is at the early stages. I attended a conference some months ago which was attended by all the stakeholders. It will ensure that we have a seamless transition through design, build and operation for a period of 20 years. Under a DBO contract, the contractor, usually a consortium which designs and builds a treatment plant, also operates the project for 20 years. The local authority recovers the related operating costs. It does so in the case of non-domestic consumers as part of their water charge and from the local government fund in the case of domestic consumers. We are convinced that, with this one-stop-shop, the project will come in at cost, if not within cost.