Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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68. To ask the Minister for Finance further to Parliamentary Question No. 1 of 5 November 2014, following the revised charging arrangement, if he will provide an update to his estimate that the deficit would increase by between €0.5 billion and €0.6 billion or 0.3 percentage points in 2015 if Irish Water fails the market corporation test; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45572/14]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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In formulating the most recent proposals announced in relation to the financing of Irish Water and water charges, the Government has sought to ensure that Irish Water will pass the 'Market Corporation Test'.

Irish Water will introduce 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 not part of general government. As such, these receipts do not count as general government revenue and accordingly will not impact on the deficit.  For information, these charges will be capped at €160 for a single adult household and €260 for all other households.

In addition, the expenditure by Irish Water in 2015 would be classified as outside Government. 

If the revenue and expenditure of Irish Water were classified as in general government, it is estimated that this would increase the deficit by approximately €524 million in 2015.