Mr. Paul McGowan:

I will answer some questions and then hand over to Ms Mannion. I will first address the plan for dwellings that cannot be metered. A million meters are due to be installed by the end of 2016. This is also relevant to a question asked by Deputy Mulherin. At the moment, 400,000 meters have been installed, and installation is proceeding at a rate of 33,000 per month. This is phase one of the metering programme, and the next phase will address apartments and places where a single supply pipe feeds a string of houses.

We need to see whether arrangements can be made for metering and what those arrangements might be. In the meantime, however, these households will continue to face an assessed charge.

Reference was made to the difficulties householders are experiencing in trying to get through to Irish Water. The company is currently taking 70,000 telephone calls per week and has acknowledged that it is challenged in this regard. Management is reviewing the resources it has applied to the area. We have discussed this issue with Irish Water and will do so again.

It is correct that the full charge, without Government subvention, is €594. As to what will happen in 2016, it is too early to say. We have to decide on the targets we will set for Irish Water in regard to operating expenditure, OPEX, and capital expenditure, CAPEX, efficiencies. Ultimately, the overall charge will be dependent on the level of Government subvention that is available. That is a matter for Government and we have no prior knowledge of what it might be.

We have not discussed the bonus system at Irish Water with the management. As I said, we regulate the company; we do not manage it. We set global targets for it to achieve, but how it decides to spend its money in order to achieve those efficiency targets is entirely a matter for management.

My colleague Ms Mannion will respond to the other questions.