Dr. Paul McGowan:

-----the Deputy's specific question, and to be absolutely clear, we did not say it should be abandoned. What we said was that to proceed with another major programme of metering investment, given that, as we see it, the expert commission's proposal was that the vast majority of water should be paid for by the State and that only excessive use should be charged to customers, in that context, at this time, there are other priorities for capital investment. However, we said we could come back and consider whether there is a case for further metering in due course but, in the meantime, other options could be considered. This was the context in which we replied to the committee. We did not boldly state that metering should be abandoned. We just said "at this time".