The water services Bill has been promised by the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, the Tánaiste's colleague and deputy party leader, Deputy Alan Kelly. We were supposed to have this soon after Christmas. In the last day or two, the Minister has been reported as spearheading the debt collection aspect of Irish Water's campaign to collect unpaid water bills. Will this Bill, as the Minister has led us to believe, include measures to take the money out of people's pockets - out of the wages of the low-paid, who are workers such as those in Dunnes Stores, Tesco and Aldi and hotels up and down the country? Will it facilitate the taking of money out of those people's wages and from the payments of those who are on social welfare and who want to get off social welfare, or has this now been completely separated? What is the issue? What will it include with respect to local authority tenants and tenants in private rental accommodation? Will it give the Government and Irish Water the power to take payment from deposits? When will we see the Bill?

We cannot go too much into the detail.

I do not want the detail. I just wish to know whether the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government is holding good on his promise.

The civil debt procedures Bill, which I think is the legislation to which Deputy Stanley probably refers-----

No, it is the water services Bill. We were told it would be in the water services Bill.

No, the civil debt procedures Bill-----

The Minister said it would be in the water services Bill.

If Deputy Stanley wants the answer he should please allow the Tánaiste to conclude.

That is what he told me in the Chamber several times.

Does Deputy Stanley want the answer?

Yes.

Perhaps the Deputy is better off addressing that specific question to the Minister. Deputy Stanley asked about debt. What I said is the same as I outlined to his deputy leader, Deputy McDonald, which is that in particular, the Department of Social Protection has a very long record in helping families who have debt issues, especially through the household budgeting scheme with An Post, to meet their debts and to pay their bills on a regular basis. That system has been employed and been working very well in this country for a long period. A total of 1.2 million people have registered with Irish Water.

How many have paid?

In regard to households who wish to pay-----

How many have paid?

Please.

-----in small amounts, the household budgeting service discussions are ongoing between the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government and An Post to have the service extended to include those particular bills if people so wish. Many people use the scheme, in particular for paying bills such as ESB and gas and local authority rents.