Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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203. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if local authorities will transfer existing debts for water services onto Irish Water; the total debt involved; the timeframe for that transfer; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [45688/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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The Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 provides for the transfer of water services functions from local authorities to Irish Water. With effect from 1 January 2014, Irish Water is responsible for the provision of public water services.

Section 12 of the Act provides for the transfer of property from a local authority to Irish Water. Section 13 of the Act provides that any rights or liabilities relating to the property transferred to Irish Water under section 12 shall also stand transferred to Irish Water. Section 14 of the Act provides for the transfer of other liabilities from a water services authority to Irish Water by way of Ministerial Order.

To date, two Orders have been made under section 14 - the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 (Transfer of Other Liabilities) Order 2014, which was signed on 20 February 2014, and the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 (Transfer of Other Liabilities) Order (No. 2) 2014, which was signed on 24 April 2014. The Orders, which are available in the Oireachtas library, provided for the transfer of a total of 970 contracts from the local authorities to Irish Water.

Work is under way in preparing balancing statements for each authority in relation to their end 2013 position, and this will determine the value of liabilities to be transferred to Irish Water.