Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

341. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the total underspend from the Irish Water metering programme; and if these funds can be reallocated to other areas of capital expenditure by Irish Water in 2016 and 2017. [21249/16]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Since 1 January 2014, Irish Water has statutory responsibility for all aspects of water services planning, delivery and operation at national, regional and local levels. This includes the domestic water metering programme. The domestic metering contracts, awarded in 2013 had the objective of installing 1,050,000 domestic meters over a 3 year programme, which started in August of that year. Ministerial consent was given to a budget of €614m including VAT for this purpose. I understand from Irish Water that the expected capital expenditure by August 2016 will amount to €465m, which will deliver circa 870,000-880,000 meter installations. As such, savings of about €148m will accrue on the capital metering programme. Up to 180,000 meters included in the original programme will not be metered at this stage, for a combination of health and safety reasons, service complexity or other technical reasons.

The Programme for a Partnership Governmentreflects the overall commitment to a capital investment of €5.5 billion to end 2021 as set out in Irish Water’s business plan, a copy of which is available within the Oireachtas library. Within this context, Irish Water has made initial proposals to my Department on the potential use of savings on the domestic metering programme to include work on priority non-domestic meters upgrades and the urgent provision of strategic water and wastewater infrastructure to enable priority development lands to be serviced where housing provision can most effectively contribute to resolving the current housing deficit. This re-orientation of funding requires Ministerial consent and regulatory approval from the Commission on Energy Regulation, processes for which have commenced.

Future phases of the metering of domestic premises will be prioritised along with other investment needs based on cost benefit assessment and policy considerations relating to the future decisions on billing and charging. Decisions on such investments will be made under the regulatory regime whereby the Commission on Energy Regulation approves the Water Services Capital Investment Programmes.