Barry Cowen (Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for making themselves available. Unfortunately, they could not be here on the first day of this series of meetings but I am glad that they are here now. I have seen their submission and note it refers to their original submission to the expert commission. I am more interested in the comments that have been made on the group's behalf since the expert commission reported on its findings. Mr. Gibney and Mr. Brendan Ogle signed the original submission but I can only comment on what Mr. Ogle has said in public since then.

As the witnesses will know, the committee has been charged with the responsibility to investigate, analyse and scrutinise the recommendations made by the expert commission to see if we can come up with a formula whereby we can all agree on a way forward based on those recommendations. Since we began the process one of the issues that has crystalised is the fact that district metering can play a role in identifying individual leakage and, therefore, excessive usage. We now know, in more stringent terms, that metering is not the only show in town for the conservation of water. Other options need to be explored and could be incorporated into the overall solution.

I will quote directly what was said by Mr. Ogle when he was interviewed by Sean O'Rourke who sought his immediate reaction to the expert commission's recommendations. Mr. Ogle said that the bottom line for him was that the report confirmed that Ireland was not wasteful in terms of its usage. He also accepted the findings in the report and confirmed that he was opposed to people wasting water. Sean O'Rourke asked Mr. Ogle the direct question, "Are you opposed to charging for wasters?" The interviewer meant people who waste water excessively. Mr. Ogle replied, "I am not opposed". Sean O'Rourke then asked him, "How would you do it?" Mr. Ogle said, "I think people who waste water, well the CER has been given the job of working out what the limits are, and I do believe we need to stop waste". We have since qualified and possibly quantified excessive use through district metering that remains outstanding. Can the witnesses qualify Mr. Ogle's remarks? How would they penalise anyone who uses excessive amounts if and when we have identified what is excessive? Let us say the Minister said 123 litres a day was acceptable and we suggested the limit should be two or three times that amount and recommended a swimming pool take for beyond that amount. How would the witnesses penalise people who use more than that amount of water?