Mr. Dermot Nolan:

We dialogue frequently with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and MABS. They are very much in favour of prepayment meters. I do not say they are in favour of disconnections but two things come to mind. First, they favour early intervention and strict action early to prevent a debt being built up. One of the biggest problems is getting the customer to accept that debt is there. They, therefore, favour early action and use of prepayment meters. When people are offered the meters, the ratio of them being taken is low. Our understanding is only one in four accept them. There appear to be two reasons for this. The first is there may be a perceived stigma about having a prepayment meter and, second, it requires that in the future people must pay up-front and they might be reluctant to accept that. Both the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and MABs, however, favour them and we hope to continue the roll-out in the coming period.