Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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1599. To ask the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government the reason he has chosen to replace Irish Water commercial debt with State-funded debt; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19509/19]

Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael)
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In April 2017, the Report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services recommended that Irish Water's current commercial loan facility be reviewed and replaced, where possible, with State lending facilities by arrangement with the National Treasury Management Agency. This followed on a Government decision in October 2016 that Irish Water's external debt facilities should be replaced, where possible, with more competitively priced State funded debt facilities.

In March 2019, the Government agreed to implement the recommendations of a Department of Finance chaired Working Group on the Replacement of Irish Water's Commercial Debt which recommended the proposed approach for the replacement of the existing commercial debt and provision for new debt. My Department is currently working with Irish Water and key stakeholders to implement the Government decision.