Mr. John Tierney:

I never said anything about jobs going. That question was asked of me and the situation I pointed to and to which I referred was similar to the one already occurring in the system. Let us look at the situation and what Irish Water is trying to do. One of the big problems we have in this country is that the capacity of the systems is such that it affects economic development. Apart from the important issues of water quality, environmental compliance and so on, a critical issue is capacity. If we had more capacity, far more jobs could be created and there could be far more investment by indigenous companies and international companies here. That is one of the critical reasons Irish Water is being established - to create a funding basis, including charges. We need that consistent funding to be able to generate further investment in the system.