Dr. Paul McGowan:

We have not reviewed the €13.5 billion programme in total because we have looked at two-year tranches of capital investment. However, part of the two-year capital investment that we have just signed off was on the basis of a five-year capital investment programme they submitted to us. We needed to look at projects that were already in flight and those just beginning, so we had to look at a longer period.

The 20% Opex efficiency that was referred to is an efficiency in the four years 2015 to 2018. We looked at separate Capex efficiencies. For example, in the decision we issued on Irish Water's capital investment programme for the next two years, we included a 10.2% overall efficiency on their capital programme. Effectively that means we expect them to deliver the same amount of capital investments at 10% less. These efficiencies then become available to plough into other capital projects.

As regards the efficiency drive, there are fully-metered and non-metered models throughout the world where utilities have been challenged with delivering efficiencies. We still expect Irish Water to deliver substantial efficiencies. It is our task to challenge them to deliver those efficiencies. It will, however, be a challenge to also examine the whole area of conservation at household level. That is why in a separate session we put forward some ideas as to how conservation measures might be brought in under various areas, such as building regulations or other avenues, to continue the conservation element at household level.