Denis Landy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and thank him for his address to us today.

The Government's announcement last week has brought clarity on the amount to be paid for water. It has dismissed the concept of collecting PPS numbers. It has also outlined two clear two charges of €60 and €160, and thus has simplified the process. The proposal works out at a charge of €1.15 per week for a single household and €3 per week for a multi-person household, and these charges will be capped until 2018, which brings certainty and clarity for the next four years. The work done in the past number of months has been worthwhile and is a sign of the patience that people in Government parties were required to have in order to get to the bottom of this situation.

I wish to bring a number of issues to the attention of the House and the Minister of State. One is the removal of bonuses. I welcome the fact that bonuses for senior staff in Irish Water have been removed and are to be reviewed.