Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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166. To ask the Minister for Finance the financial implications for the Exchequer if Irish Water were not to charge domestic consumers for water use; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37932/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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Irish Water has introduced water charges for domestic customers to fund expenditure on the treatment and provision of water services. The monies raised by water charges will be received by Irish Water, which is a not part of general government. As such, these receipts do not count as general government revenue and accordingly will not impact on the deficit. 

In the event that Irish Water did not charge domestic consumers for water use, a number of issues would arise. The first point that would need to be considered is the proposed level of expenditure on water services and how to fund it. Any decisions on Exchequer expenditure on the provision of water services would be a matter for the Minister for Environment, Local Government and Community and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform.

The second issue is that the absence of water charges revenue would have to be taken into account by the Central Statistics Office in the statistical classification of Irish Water. If it was classified within general government, all its revenue and expenditure would impact on the general government deficit and its debt would count as general government debt.