Peadar Tóibín
Question:626. Deputy Peadar Tóibín asked the Minister for Housing, Local Government and Heritage the amount of Government money received by Irish Water in each of the past five years and to date in 2022. [39792/22]
View answerTuesday, 26 July 2022
Questions (626)
Written answers
In September 2017, the government agreed a new funding model for Irish Water following the report of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on the Future Funding of Domestic Water Services that was published and approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas in April 2017.
The new funding model provides for a Government subvention for domestic water services funded from the Exchequer through my Department’s Vote and a continuation of charges for non-domestic customers and new connections. My Department also funds Irish Water through a capital contribution to fund their capital programme in respect of the domestic sector.
In March 2019, the Government approved recommendations made by an inter-departmental working group on replacing Irish Water’s existing commercial debt facilities with state funding and provide state borrowing facilities in respect of the capital programme for the non-domestic sector. This facility is provided by the Minister for Finance.
The Programme for Government commits to funding Irish Water's capital investment plan for water and wastewater infrastructure on a multi-annual basis. The National Development Plan 2021-2030 commits to almost €6bn investment to be undertaken by Irish Water in the period from 2021-2025, of which over €4.5 billion will be Voted Exchequer funded in respect of domestic water services.
In this regard, as part of Budget 2022, I secured funding of over €1.57 billion to support water services. This includes €1.459 billion in respect of domestic water services provision by Irish Water. This overall investment will deliver significant improvements in our public water and waste water services, support improved water supplies right across Ireland, including rural Ireland, and support a range of programmes delivering improved water quality in our rivers, lakes and marine areas.
State funding provided to Irish Water in the past 5 years including the funding to date for 2022 is set out in the table below:
|
Amounts to nearest €m |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
Funding to June 2022 |
|
Current |
291 |
600 |
562 |
624 |
677 |
262 |
|
Capital |
500 |
646 |
679 |
599 |
304 |
|
|
Total Vote 34 |
291 |
1,100 |
1,208 |
1,303 |
1,276 |
566 |
|
Local Government Fund |
639 |
|||||
|
Capital contribution from the Minister for Finance |
270 |
758 |
||||
|
Minister for Finance funding for the replacement of commercial borrowings |
238 |
|||||
|
State Borrowing Allocations |
134 |
130 |
45 |
|||
|
Total |
1,200 |
1,100 |
1,966 |
1,675 |
1,406 |
611 |