Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein)
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246. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, Community and Local Government if revenue raised by Irish Water through domestic water charges is used to fund the operational costs of the provision of water services or the rolling capital programme, as detailed in page 23 of Irish Water's business plan; and if some or all of the revenue raised from domestic water charges is allocated to Irish Water's capital investment programme, the amount allocated for each year that domestic water charges have been collected. [6992/17]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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The Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) regulatory process sets the allowed revenue which covers both operational costs and the costs of funding the approved capital programme. The CER does not approve the particular sources of funding for the capital programme or the particular debt/equity mix. In the case of Irish Water, the capital programme is funded by a mix of funding from operations (i.e. customer revenue including that provided by the State subvention which is equivalent to the purchase of water on behalf of domestic customers under a number of headings), debt and equity. The following table indicates the breakdown between these elements in the period 2015-2016 in line with the Irish Water Business Plan, from a cash flow perspective.

Funding and Expenditure (including Capital Expenditure 2015-2016)

When account is taken of the operating revenue (customer and subvention) required to meet operating expenditure needs, there was a balance of €95 million available from this source to fund capital expenditure in 2015 and 2016. In the period 2017-2021, in accordance with the Business Plan, the forecast revenue from customers/subvention amounts to 26% of the proposed capital spending, with debt accounting for 46% and equity for 28%.