Mr. Paul McGowan:

I will respond to some of Senator Keane's questions on the CER and pass over to my colleague, Ms Mannion. The question of how charging might pan out if a boil notice is in place has yet to be decided. We indicated that there would be an issue. It would seem sensible that where quality is not within reasonable bounds as determined by the EPA, we investigate what rebate, if any, applies. That has yet to be decided but we will be consulting on that.

We will consult on codes of practice and the general structure and format around those in April and a final decision on that is due in June or July. I can confirm that date for the Senator. That is the approximate timetable during which we will deal with that.

We said that based on the high-level analysis we carried regarding Uisce Éireann's establishment costs, we thought that 80% to 85% of these costs appeared reasonable and could represent value to the Uisce Éireann. We said that this did not mean that the other 15% to 20% of costs are unreasonable but just that it would take further analysis to determine whether or not they were reasonable and that detailed analysis will essentially commence once we receive the detailed submission from Uisce Éireann at the end of February. We then analyse those costs and, ultimately, we will put out a consultation paper that will include our analysis and whether we think all of those costs are reasonable. That will occur in June.