Ms Teresa Leonard:

I am not quite sure which questions I have at this stage. I keep repeating this but the decision is a matter for the Government and there is no decision at this point. It is a matter for the Government in the context of the debates that will take place on this issue and whether it is to be brought forward in a Government agenda for the next budget. That is strictly a matter for Government.

Deputy O'Dea asked where we see the budget which is only so many months away. It goes back to a point just made by Ms Mangan about producing further analysis on this. Given the investment and resource time available to do that, until we get some clarification, one must question where this is going. Naturally, we have done preliminary work on this and broad outlines of what it would look like as a package should the Government make a decision to put it down. We have indicated how much time it would take us to do this, to support it and, as Deputy Ryan put it, to put in place a system that would not cause too much difficulties. We do not want to cause any difficulties for customers so it would have to be a system that is easily operated by our customer base and available to it in a timely manner so we can react quickly to it.

With all that in mind, we have not invested in doing in-depth analysis until we get a Government indication or decision that it is going down a particular route. To be fair, that is not the remit of the Department. Giving that indication is the remit of Government.

Ms Mangan has replied to a question relating to a number of budgets. The report clearly says that this could be brought in over a number of budgets but, again, it raises the question of how, if one makes savings, one ploughs them back and the method and timing by which one does them. Ms Mangan answered the question about separated customers.