Michael McCarthy (Cork South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Before Mr. McGowan answers, I might add that when people do not actually have a utility bill - they cannot sit down and read something - it is harder to visualise it. It is out there in the ether, and there is a lot of uncertainty. Allied to one of the questions that Senator Naughton has asked, if somebody is, for example, on a basic social welfare payment or jobseeker's rate of €188, what in the name of all that is good are they going to do about paying the call-out charge? Someone like that just will not be able to afford it. Those cases may be extreme, but it is inevitable that somebody will be in that situation in which they cannot afford to entertain the notion of putting a call through to Uisce Éireann asking for someone to come out and fix a pipe.

People might not be in those circumstances today but could find themselves in that situation next week or next month. Has this issue been factored into the delegates' considerations? I realise no definitive decision has been made on call charges, but has the plight of people in the circumstances I have described permeated their thinking in terms of the likely costs?