Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

Could the CER clarify its role in the area of water conservation? Some of us do not believe that Irish Water has got anything to do with water conservation at all and that it is just another money-grab that is going to cost people a fortune. I would like to ask the witnesses what precisely they consider their role to be in the area of water conservation and how they are going to act to ensure that is actually of some priority to Irish Water. Reports are circulating - I wonder if the witnesses have heard this - that the actually installation of meters is leading to more leakage. In the aftermath of sticking in these meters, which frankly I think is an extraordinary waste of money because it does not conserve any water - it is 500 million euro that could have gone into conserving water - as if that irony is not great enough there are now considerable reports that the act of putting in the meter is leading to leakage and that people are reporting leaks afterwards. It is not entirely clear to me looking at the terms and conditions for the customer - perhaps the witnesses could clarify this too - whether customers could actually end up paying the bill for leakages if they are on the wrong side of the boundary between Irish Water's responsibility to maintain the pipes and the customer's responsibility. Is it possible that the customer will end up paying for the leaks caused by putting in the meters?

Staying with the issue of conservation, the CER is setting a price of €2.44 per 1,000 litres for single service, €4.88 for double service. At the same time, it is requiring Irish Water to generate a certain amount of revenue from billing customers, if I understand it correctly. They have to meet a target for billing. Does that not mean that if people reduce their water usage, but Irish Water is still required to meet certain targets in terms of revenue, inevitably as people conserve more water the price per litre has to increase? It seems to me that that has to be the case if there is a set target for what Irish Water has to generate in terms of revenue. I did not hear the answer earlier on the issue of full cost recovery and the need for Irish Water to move towards full cost recovery. I would appreciate if the witness could repeat this. The assessed charge is currently €2.48 per household but what about the requirement to get to full cost recovery?

What about full cost recovery and the requirement to get to that? Does this not inevitably mean that whatever the price is now - which is unaffordable for many people - it will rise and continue to move towards full cost recovery?

Can a person opt out of Irish Water and can people say "No", that they do not want its services? Is it true that if people do that, they will be told they must pay a fee to opt out? That is what I have been told by somebody who phoned Irish Water and said he wanted to opt out of the Irish Water service. Incredibly, he was told he would have to pay a fee to opt out of the service. I saw a fantastic placard at the weekend which stated: "I will pay for water when God sends me a bill." That would be my attitude also, but as I do not believe God exists, I will never get a bill I intend to pay for water.

If we must pay for "water in" and "water out", does this mean we will pay for the water from the sky? This is what has happened in Bolivia and Detroit. I am not talking about the water that comes in through the system, the treated water, but for the water that comes down from the sky. Will we end up paying for that?