David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My next question is to Dr. McGowan. In response to a previous question on his commentary about another phase of rolling out domestic water meters, he said that in the context of the expert commission's report, it would not be prudent to proceed with another roll-out because it has proposed, by and large, that domestic water would be provided by general taxation. That is his position. Has he examined this from a cost control perspective? If that is the case, does the commission see savings being made regarding the non-roll-out of domestic water meters?

In an answer to an Teachta O'Connell's question earlier, the possibility of parking the roll-out was mentioned. Could that actually increase costs? We could have increased labour or contractual costs, so could that add costs? If this has been looked at from a cost control perspective, has it been looked at from the point of view of reducing costs in terms of revenue controls?