Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have a question for the witnesses from the Commission for Energy Regulation. Page three of their submission, which I note incorporates their additional comments, concerns the key CER assumptions made to allow the development of scenarios for illustrative purposes. The third paragraph from the bottom stated that the CER is taking into consideration the sources of the information and when it was sourced nothwithstanding what Dr. McGowan has since told Deputy Healy about up-to-date figures. It has been mentioned that there are examples of customers using 100 times the average daily consumption. Where did this information come from? My next question is probably best asked of Irish Water. Have those particular issues been tackled? Do the witnesses from the CER believe that the usage of the majority of metered properties in the State will bring the average consumption down? I ask this question because 120 or thereabouts is the figure out there in the ether. It has been discussed on a number of occasions. I am looking at 127 on page six based on all households, including those with leaks, and 102 excluding those with leaks. Will those figures continue to come down as Irish Water continues its work in the short term? I am talking about since mid-2016, which is when the figures were collated. Is it possible for the CER to use its data to extrapolate where we are heading in the next year or two?