John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I asked a short question. I would like to contradict the answer I received because there is a substantial body of evidence that contradicts Mr. McNicholas's view. There is no suggestion that a gas meter promotes conservation of gas and there is no evidence that an electricity meter promotes the conservation of electricity. On the contrary, if Irish Water considers its brother and sister companies, for example, the ESB, it will find that it is alternative and additional conservation measures, whether solar energy or energy-saving appliances, that help consumers to conserve energy, not meters. This is one of the opportunities Irish Water missed in terms of introducing smart metering to allow people to see how much water they are consuming. The only way a household can determine how much water it is using with the metering system installed by Irish Water is by reading their water bill or lifting up the lid of the meter and reading it. There is no other way of knowing what is the water consumption of household appliances. Irish Water missed a golden opportunity to implement a seriously smart metering project.

I have two questions on commercial water rates.