Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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116. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the net cost and savings in abolishing water charges and the water conservation grant, including its administration costs and its associated impact on the fiscal space. [13892/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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Abolishing domestic water charges would lead to an expected additional subvention requirement of up to €1.4 billion over period 2016-2021, subject to assumptions on payment levels, allowing for some reducing in customer service costs but without reflecting any costs of dismantling contracts. Some additional funding would also arise for the group water sector. Assuming the abolition of the Water Conservation Grant, savings of some €660 million would arise, again over the same period and including savings on administrative costs.

The effect on the fiscal space or budgetary room for manoeuvre as calculated under the Expenditure Benchmark is more complex to describe. The expenditure undertaken by Irish Water, which counts as general government expenditure, is already in the base level of expenditure. However, the abolishment of water charges would count as a discretionary revenue reduction for the year after the abolition occurred. The redeployment of the Water Conservation Grant as subvention to Irish Water would compensate to some degree.