Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein)
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26. To ask the Minister for Finance his views that the EU Commission water conservation grant amounts to an Exchequer transfer to Irish Water and the implications a similar finding from EUROSTAT would have on his budgetary plans. [4651/15]

Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael)
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To promote sustainable use of water and to enhance water conservation in households, the Government decided to introduce a €100 water conservation grant for all households (principal private dwellings) that complete a valid response to Irish Water s customer registration process. The grant of €100 per annum will be available to all households, irrespective of the manner in which their water is provided and is not tied to expenditure on any particular aspect of water provision.  It is my Department's opinion that the grant has the characteristics of a transfer to households and is not a transfer to the water provider.  However, it will be the responsibility of the Central Statistics Office and Eurostat to classify this transfer for the purposes of returns required under the Maastricht Treaty.

As a transfer from government, the conservation grant will be considered government expenditure. PQ 42850/14, which I answered on the 11th of November last, described the market test criteria that Irish Water and other semi-State companies must meet in order for their costs not to be included in the general Government accounts. The impact on the deficit if Irish Water is included in general government, which has been covered previously in PQ No. 68 (45572/14) of the 27th of November 2014, is estimated to be in the region of €524 million in 2015.