Ciarán Cuffe (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Question 430: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the annual capital and current costs incurred by him in providing piped water; and if he will provide a breakdown of the costs, including energy use in current funding. [42758/09]

John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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My Department funds the capital costs associated with the provision of water services infrastructure to the domestic sector. The 2009 capital provision is €500 million, of which an estimated €270 million will be spent on the provision of drinking water supplies. The operational costs for local authorities in providing water and wastewater services in 2007, based on the Annual Financial Statements for that year (the most recent year for which audited information is available), was €646 million.

Local authorities charge non-domestic customers for the water services they provide while the operational costs of domestic water services are funded from the General Purposes Grants from the Local Government Fund. The total General Purpose Grants allocated to local authorities in 2009 exceeded €900 million.