Ms Maria Graham:

Yes. It is different from a previous funding model that would have seen operations and capital expenditure funded in different ways as in other areas of infrastructure. It is dependent on the bill being presented to the State and a mechanism being in place to enable the State to honour it. There is certainty. There are mechanisms in other countries where the state, for example, gives an outline of the funding likely to be available in a multi-annual period and the regulator and the utility work in that vein. We set out in one of our earlier papers how that might work. The Deputy is correct. There is greater certainty from the utility's perspective if it can simply present the bill to the State as a sole customer and have it paid.