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

The intention in this section is not to penalise someone if they are using what might be deemed excessive under the legislation because they have a particular health need which requires them to use additional water. We will come to this again when deciding the regulations as to who will be in and who will be out. We will probably need to have some sort of catch-all provision to ensure we do not inadvertently exclude someone we do not mean to. We can look at other jurisdictions to do this and I come back to the committee to have a consultation on this to ensure we are protecting those vulnerable people who require additional amounts of water. That is what we want to do with this section.

The term "health professional" captures the number of people who would have the best say as to who might be included. Sending it out to a social care worker might be too broad. It is my intention to ensure we get this right and to consult the committee on this. There is not a massive rush on this either because we have some time to clarify this and to look to best practice abroad. The essential intention of the section is to ensure there will be an exemption for those who have a condition that requires them to use an additional amount of water and that they will not come under an excessive charge for that. I hope that clarifies it for the Deputy.