Mr. John Tierney:

The Deputy referred to the amounts of €50 million and €35 million. They are not, in the information I have before me, broken down in the manner stated by him. The sum of €50 million referred to is the spend to date, whereas the figure we have provided is the forecasted spend in the document.

I will ask one of my colleagues to elaborate further on the systems issue. However, the Deputy will note that the systems are outlined on pages 15 to 19, inclusive, including in relation to asset management. One of the big issues for the system is the critical lack of data on the condition of the assets. This information is hugely important in ensuring efficiencies and a better capital spend in upgrading or improving these assets. That is a huge part of the work involved. Another important part of the work is in relation to customer and operations billing; again, it is an enormous system. I mentioned some of the international systems in relation to customer billing. Mr. O'Donoghue has already spoken about this issue and can elaborate further, if members wish. As in the case of other organisations, there are many other support systems required, including HR, financial, health and safety, environment, incident management, capital delivery, environment regulation and so on. Reference was made to a system set up a number of years ago, but it was never implemented. The systems about which we are speaking have been largely implemented, with some, for parts of the process which will come into force on 1 January next year, remaining to be completed, including in relation to customer billing. These are one-off costs. My employment has nothing whatsoever to do with these consultants. They were already in the process of being recruited when I joined.

They were needed to do this and whether I ever joined was irrelevant. These were needed and it was pointed out that they were needed. They were procured properly and that is the reason we have the foundation for the utility we currently have. One of the reasons I joined was that I knew that Bord Gáis would have approached this in a very professional manner. That was critical. The essential factor for any utility starting off is to be well prepared. If a body is not well prepared, it will run into endless trouble, and that is a critical point.