Mr. James Egan:

I will be as brief as possible. For the first three and a half years of the scheme, Bord Gáis Networks visited more than 19,000 homes per year, and we have already discussed clamping. There is a memorandum of understanding between Bord Gáis Networks and RGII, supposedly, that if RGII finds something it will send it over. In the first three and a half years no complaints were sent over. In the first three and a half years there were three prosecutions. Two of them were never publicised. It took us ages even to find out the details. We could not get them. That was the situation in the first three and a half years. It picked up last year, when seven were caught. Bord Gáis Networks is obviously getting a little more proactive, but in the overall scale of things this is really tiny.

The overall problem is that the system is not fit for purpose. There is a huge hole in the system. It is all geared towards regulating registered gas installers. There is nothing about proactively looking for illegals, and it is the responsibility of the CER to put in place a comprehensive safety system.

Regarding the merchants, it was we who approached them and got three of the main merchants to sign up to a voluntary scheme for parts. We approached the CER about it and it said it could not impose it on merchants. We asked the CER to ask them to participate. The CER did that and got one or two more. However, it is mainly on parts. They are not doing it on the boilers and the main reason is that they would simply go out of business if they did it at present.