Kenny: All the Irish Water concerns have been fully answered
The Taoiseach said the issues causing difficulties, anxieties and concerns for people over water charges and Irish Water have been fully addressed.
Enda Kenny said the Government has listened to the voice of the people and acted on what it has heard.
"For Irish Water, I think we've answered all of these anxieties of people, very comprehensively" he said.
He said he hopes people will reflect on the fact that the Government admitted it made mistakes but has been big enough to rectify those mistakes "and set out a pathway where we can fix what's been wrong, in terms of the infrastructure."
Meanwhile, the Tánaiste said the Government will not know until next April at the earliest if Irish Water will pass an EU test and can keep the utility off the State's balance sheet.
Under the rules, Government funding to Irish Water must be less than 50% of its revenue and it is not clear if the revised water charges announced yesterday will meet this test.
But Eurostat will have to rule on whether the Water Conservation Grant of €100 for every household is indirect funding to Irish Water.
Putting the queston to Joan Burton in the Dáil, Fianna Fáil's Barry Cowen asked: "The revised model has not passed the market test - it hasn't. In the event of it not passing the test, what is plan B?"
The Tánaiste, however, said that the Government is confident in the figure they have.
"We anticipate that hey will carry out that test and examination sometime next April - some time around the end of the first quarter."
"But we're very confident."
