Mr. Paul McGowan:

On boil-water notices and the non-domestic sector, as stated earlier, our focus has been on charges relating to domestic supplies. Nevertheless, we recognised that a situation arose in respect of non-domestic customers. The then position was that there were no discounts in respect of them. We are not proposing to carry out the full review and determination of non-domestic costs until next year. We will be publishing a timeframe in respect of that matter. However, we recognised that there was a potential issue in the context of the discounts. We applied a discount of 40% where none had existed before and when we had no plans to introduce any discount. What we need to do is to carry out an analysis, because some of these non-domestic customers are extremely large and, with the exception of a small number, they do not use water for the purposes of food preparation. Until we have carried out a full analysis in respect of the non-domestic sector, we will not be in a position to move beyond the 40% discount we have already identified. As already stated, there previously had been no discount.

Deputy Denis Naughten inquired why the discount is not being applied in respect of water in and water out. The initial proposal was that there would be a 50% discount in respect of water in, and we have increased this to 100%. At the same time, however, we recognise that Irish Water has a job to do and that it must be able to take in sufficient revenue in order that it might make the necessary capital investments to ensure that supplies of water in and treatment of water out both meet the requisite quality standards. We have reached a position at which the water that comes into a premises will be free in circumstances in which a boil-water notice is in place. However, we recognise that all water out from that premises will still need to be treated and that there are costs associated with this. It is important that we get the balance right in terms of ensuring people are treated fairly with regard to the services they receive from Irish Water while also ensuring that the company has sufficient revenue to allow it to fix any problems that arise.