Mr. Jerry Grant:

In terms of what we have delivered, the cost of each of the 884,000 meters installed was €526. The budget was €584 per unit and so the final cost was efficient. It is important to point out that this large programme of work was possible because we were able to identify the number of properties to which it was possible to make a single connection. The difficulty from here on in is that there are all kinds of complications in terms of backyard services, shared services, old buildings and so on. If, therefore, an attempt was made to force the pace on metering in the future, it could be inefficient and expensive. It would make more sense to have meters installed as the network is developed. For example, we will be replacing a lot of pipes as part of the leakage programme over the next ten or 15 years and, therefore, it would be much more economical to install meters as part of that programme of work. New developments should always have the capacity for metering. The meter is very cheap once the right box is installed. Approximately 11% of properties are apartments in shared buildings and these can never have individual meters but they can have bulk meters. There are different approaches that could be taken. It would be a much more sophisticated, longer-term and better-managed process to extend metering beyond where we are now.