Dr. Paul McGowan:

We do not direct Irish Water in how to achieve its efficiencies. Rather, we benchmark it against the likes of Scottish Water and various water companies in England and Wales and set it an efficiency target. It is up to Irish Water to determine how it delivers those efficiencies, but experience has shown that utilities that start out with relatively high cost bases can deliver those efficiencies over time. Scottish Water and Welsh Water have been in existence for 15 plus years. It is a journey, but efficiencies in the order that we have identified in our paper can be delivered.