Mr. Jerry Grant:

Long term, 25% would be very low countrywide. We are probably talking about between 25% and 30% but we would look from area to area. Some rural areas have huge lengths of main for every service and it would be very hard to get leakage in those areas down below 30% because there is so much pipe per connection. We then look at cities like Cork, which is at over 50%. We must go much lower than that but then Cork has particular pressure problems. If members know Cork, they will know that many of the reservoirs are on the high side and much of the city is very flat. Trying to manage pressure there is a very significant issue but a huge replacement programme is under way. Limerick is much better. There has been a lot of work over the years to get Limerick from what was about 50% down to about 40% and possibly into the high 30s. A lot of work has been done in Limerick, mostly hard graft involving find and fix repairs.