Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 May 2015
599. Deputy Anthony Lawlor asked the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government if he will provide a detailed breakdown in tabular form of public funding used to date for the establishment and running of Irish Water broken down by year and source of funding. [18573/15]
View answerNo Exchequer funds have been provided for the establishment costs of Irish Water. The only Exchequer funding provided to Bórd Gáis or Irish Water in 2012 or 2013 was a grant of €0.57m to Irish Water in 2013 to fund the cost of a pilot study in relation to Phase 2 of the Water Metering Programme which is targeted at metering those properties that were not meterable in the Phase 1 Programme.
In terms of its operations, Irish Water receives funding for capital investment purposes and towards its operating costs. In that context, in 2014, Irish Water received €239m for capital purposes – this was provided by way of €185m capital contribution from the Minister for Finance and a further €54m in the form of a convertible loan. This is broadly equivalent to the €240m in Exchequer resources devoted to the Water Services Investment Programme in 2013. A further capital contribution of €222m in respect of 2015 has also been provided to Irish Water by the Minister for Finance.
Irish Water received a subvention of some €439 million 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 earmarked in 2015 in respect of operational subvention. 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. In addition, provision has been made for the provision of a working capital loan to Irish Water of up to €96m in 2015.
