Dr. Paul McGowan:

I am happy to kick off. First, to answer Deputy O'Connell's points specifically about metering, we were asked a number of questions concerning metering by the committee. We offered ideas and views regarding the future of metering on the basis of the committee's request. That was the genesis of those answers. Metering is a regulatory matter. It forms the basis in utility regulation for a large element of charging regimes right across energy, water and other utilities. We recognise that the first phase of the metering was a decision taken by Government. The decision was novated, so to speak, to Irish Water and to us. Future consideration of further roll-out of metering - for example, to customers in apartment buildings and those houses that had not been metered in the first phase - was always going to be something that we would consider in due course in terms of its overall cost benefit, the cost of doing it and what its benefits would be. Ultimately, we would have worked with Irish Water to determine the most efficient approach to close out the metering programme. A regulator would have a very close interest in this.