Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Mr. Corrigan hit the nail on the head when he said that the corporate structure of Irish Water is the main factor that will determine how the bonds will be raised. One of the proposals for Irish Water is that a free allowance will be issued to households and then people will be charged for water after that allowance is used. In terms of setting up a non-profit company, one provides households with water, charges them per litre and operates a cost model which ensures the lowest cost to the customer. However, if the company is issuing a free allowance of 100 litres per week, or per day, for example, that could cause a difficulty. I will use the example of going to a pub to illustrate my point. Let us say we decide to go for a drink after this meeting and I tell you that I know of a pub where every second pint is free, but we have to pay €10 each for the first one. In the same way, if Irish Water provides a free allowance of 100 litres, it may have to charge a high price for every litre after that. Has the NTMA discussed the issue of the free allowance and its possible impact on the costing model within Irish Water with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government, Irish Water or Bord Gáis?