Mr. Jerry Grant:

I have a couple of comments on that. On the staff in local authorities, what is done internally and what is contracted, there are, broadly speaking, similar arrangements in all local authorities with regard to the work that is insourced and the work that is traditionally outsourced. It can vary from local authority to local authority. Our intention is to remain consistent and true to that. If anything, our ambition would be to be able to insource more work through the development of the capabilities we have talked about. Contractors are used for two purposes, including delivering on one-off capital projects and major capital programmes, and for delivering specialist maintenance. We are currently also using design-build-operate, DBO, contracts, but in the fullness of time, I hope we will not need that to the same extent. There is no question of substituting what is currently insourced, done by public sector staff, with contractors. That will not happen. That will be integral to the discussions we will have and we will have no difficulty in giving those assurances in those discussions.

I have talked about the question of personal knowledge. We hugely value the local knowledge that people have of the network. Equally, it is not a consistent and reliable basis on which to run a business or to plan investments and we have put a huge amount of work in. A significant part of the investment was to have the capability to gather information on the networks, all the incidents that happened, and so on, and to build that. When we come to replace 70 km of pipe in the Dublin area, that is on the back of information we have about burst frequency, service levels and all those kinds of things.

In relation to our current work, we are not currently carrying out any active metering of domestic properties. We are doing critical work under our current programmes to replace backyard lead services. This is a critical public health issue which everyone should be focused on. We currently have between 25,000 and 30,000 people fed from old backyard lead services which are almost guaranteed not to comply with the lead in drinking water standard, which is a serious health issue for young babies and infants in the womb. We have brought much focus to this since we came in. It has gone under the radar a lot. The second thing about those backyard services is that they invariably leak enormously. They are now under patios, extensions and so on.

A critical part of the programme of work we have is to put in individual services to the front of the houses, with stopcocks, which provide individual new non-lead services to those properties. Equally, we are replacing public side lead services in parts of the country. That is the programme of work that is ongoing at present. At times it has met with resistance because people confuse it with the metering work and in those cases we have engaged with and do engage with local elected representatives to help us to explain the purposes of what we are doing. We would see that as an important support.

As regards leakage, reducing leakage is a massive problem wherever it is. The leakage rate of 36% in the greater Dublin area will be reduced over time, towards the figure of 20%. We will never get below a leakage rate of 20% based on the best that has been achieved in the UK or Northern Ireland water systems, simply because of the nature of the assets and the average pipe age, which in Dublin is about 85 years. Frankly, much of the cast iron, which people regard as old and decrepit is actually better than a lot of the asbestos and PVC pipes laid in the 1960s, 1970s and even into the 1980s. Our job in reducing the level of leakage is enormous. People will see a significant increase in the number of holes in the ground related to repairs we will be carrying out.

Our focus on customer side leakage is usually driven by customer complaints, about pressure and lack of service. The vast bulk of the work we do, particularly around large leaks, is related to getting those leaks fixed and as many are on the customer's property, we engage with them and we offer a first fix, if that is appropriate. That work is ongoing.

As far as the excess use charge is concerned, there is no point in me speculating on how that might operate because that is a matter for the regulator to consider in the context of the legislation. Our job will be simply to respond to whatever is finally set out there but our primary purpose is to ensure proper service to customers, adequate pressure and that leaks are repaired. I mentioned earlier that currently we are directly speaking to 4,000 householders about leaks that are averaging 12.5 tonnes of water every day each, which is equivalent to the water consumption of 35 houses. Those leaks are causing damage on those properties or to a neighbour's property. As well as the householder in question, these leaks are certainly impacting on the water pressure and the water services to their neighbours. There is a significant benefit in getting those leaks fixed and having that service restored.