Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Anti-Austerity Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I probably owe a debt of gratitude to the gentlemen from Irish Water. They say it is good for one's health to get up early in the mornings. There are many communities in Cork city and county who force me to get up very early to meet some of the Irish Water metering crews at the entrances of various housing estates.

On the issue of operating costs, the expert commission report states that the majority of ordinary households should not have to pay the water charge through direct charges and that only a minority of what are described as water wasters should do so. It suggests a couple of ways of achieving that outcome. It posits the idea that perhaps 90% of domestic users would not pay water charges and perhaps 10% would pay a water charge. From the point of view of costs, is it not crazy economics to then meter, bill and collect data from every home simply to collect charges from 10% of domestic users? Any ordinary person would conclude that such a proposal amounts to crazy economics. I ask the witnesses to comment.

Representatives of the Commission for Energy Regulation spoke about parking the metering programme. Do the representatives of Irish Water agree that the programme should be parked? Do they also agree that this would mean, ipso facto, that the charges must be scrapped, by which I mean that all charges, including the so-called excessive usage charge, would be impossible to pursue without-----