Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Section 8 refers a number of times to dwellings in which the number of residents "exceeds 4". Essentially it does not matter what the average household number is. Deputy Barry Cowen explained it quite well. The provision will mean that any household with more than four people will be able to apply for an additional allowance, per person, above four, but where there are four people, the average consumption will be calculated by Irish Water not based on the usage divided by the number of people in a house but on the usage divided by the number of customers, that is, the number of households. That brings us to a figure that effectively covers four people in terms of cubic metres on an annual basis. We are stating in the section that if there is a person in the house in addition to the four, one can apply for the additional person allowance in cubic metres. Notwithstanding this, there is an allowance of 1.7 on top of it for excess usage which, based on all of the available data, will actually cover eight persons in a household. Again, this speaks to Deputy Fergus O'Dowd's point about making sure a single parent with three young children will be more than provided for by the provision concerning an average household of four and the additional allowance of 1.7 above it.

On the point about international comparisons, international comparisons are welcome, but I do not believe this legislation is the place for them. I commit, however, to a reference thereto. The water forum should also make a recommendation in this regard such that when we are using the actual data for usage, we can also refer to international comparisons.