I propose to take Questions Nos. 186 and 187 together.
Following enactment of the Water Services (No.2) Act 2013, responsibility for the delivery of public water services became the responsibility of Irish Water from 1 January 2014. This included responsibility for the overall costs involved, both operational and capital costs. Pending the legal transfer of contracts from local authorities to Irish Water, any costs incurred by local authorities for example on Design Build Operate or other maintenance or construction contracts were recouped under Service Level Agreements.
The transfer of contracts was effected through the provisions of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013, which provides the mechanism for the transfer of both water services assets and liabilities of the local authorities to Irish Water. Accordingly, existing Design Build and Operate contracts were included in:
- the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 (Transfer of Other Liabilities) Order 2014, which was signed on 20 February 2014, and
- the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 (Transfer of Other Liabilities) Order (No. 2) 2014, which was signed on 24 April 2014.
My Department has established from Irish Water the current extent of DBO contracts in the water sector and the remaining liability on these contracts is outlined in the following table.
Region
|
Estimated Costs for remaining life of contracts
|
Contracts
|
Sites
|
Average remaining life on current DBO Contracts
|
South
|
477,165,646
|
50
|
94
|
15
|
East
|
661,302,553
|
27
|
60
|
14
|
|
|
|
|
|
Northwest
|
267,235,423
|
38
|
78
|
15
|
|
|
|
|
|
Grand Total
|
1,405,703,622
|
115
|
232
|
15
|
Irish Water received a subvention of some €439 million from the Local Government Fund in 2014 for operational expenditure, to fund water-related expenditures incurred heretofore by local authorities and which would, historically, have been met by local authorities from their own resources, non-domestic water charge revenues and general purpose grants from the Fund. An amount of €399m has been allocated from the LGF in 2015 in respect of an operational subvention to Irish Water. This subvention will be paid in respect of the child allowance (21,000 litres per child per annum), a product subsidy and capping domestic water charges.