Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

A number of questions arise from the answers that Mr. Grant, Mr. Murray and Mr. O'Connor provided. I wish to refer to the design life of 50 years. Mr. Grant in responding to questions referred to the proof of the pudding, but in this case it will be 50 years before we see the proof of the pudding. That comes to the nub of the issue. I acknowledge that a great deal of work was done on the specifications, the delivery framework and the workmanship in advance of the procurement process, which was well pointed out by Mr. Murray. Surely some thought was put into the number of grade B and grade C boundary box covers that would be required as part of the tender process.

The automatic meter reading technology was mentioned and the grade C covers, which account for 80% of covers, present no inhibiting factors in the reading of the meters. It was mentioned that factors such as a wall, a car or other impediment could affect the efficient reading of the meters. I suggest that cast iron covers would inhibit the efficient reading of meters. Was that considered as part of the process for the grade B covers? I would be surprised that Irish Water would purposely put an impediment to the efficient reading of meters, given that it employs only 11 meter readers.