Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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21. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the amount of money in owed development contributions transferred to Irish Water on property vesting day under section 12(8) of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013, broken down by the local authority to which they were formerly owed; the amount that has been collected; the amount Irish Water has spent on recovering these funds to date; the amount that has been written off by Irish Water and deemed irrecoverable; if local authorities are still tasked with any element of recovering such moneys, and to what extent; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9080/15]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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On 14 January 2015 I signed an order under section 12 of the Water Services (No 2) Act 2013. This order was not connected with the transfer of development contributions; rather, it provided for the transfer to Irish Water of all underground water services assets previously vested in the local authorities. To date, this is the only order that has been made under section 12.

Information on the monetary value of development contributions collected at year end and not spent is not available in my Department. Local authorities are obliged to include, in Note 11 of their Annual Financial Statements, data showing the closing balances for development contributions. The overall Development Contributions balances listed in the AFS comprise both cash and debtors and include adjustments for movements in bad debt provisions.

Work is currently underway between Irish Water and the local authorities in relation to the identification and quantification of the water-related financial liabilities. Final agreement on the liability to transfer to Irish Water, including financial assets, liabilities and debtors, will be by way of balancing statements agreed between Irish Water and local authorities. It is anticipated that this work will be completed shortly.