Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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282. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the cost of administering the 2015 water conservation grant; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15322/16]

Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Social Protection is administering the Water Conservation Grant on behalf of the Department of Environment, Community, and Local Government. As of 13th June 2016, a total of 890,036 grant applications had been submitted by householders and processed.

The administration and payment of this grant was a significant project requiring the development and implementation of ICT systems, ICT infrastructure and various customer support and communications services. The total administration costs for the 2015 Water Conservation Grant to date are €5,995,035.42. These include both the once-off setup costs and the operational costs. A small number of residual payments continue to be made to householders who have an entitlement to the 2015 Water Conservation Grant. As a result, some comparatively small operational costs continue to be incurred and the final administrative cost has yet to be finalised.

All costs connected with the set-up and administration of the Water Conservation Grant are being recouped from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in line with existing procedures. Every effort is being made to maximise efficiencies and keep costs to the absolute minimum. Where possible, the Department reused existing payment production systems to facilitate payment of the grant. It is also intended that the ICT infrastructure put in place for this project will be reused for the provision of online services in the future.

I hope this clarifies the matter for the Deputy.