Mr. Frank Conway:

To answer Deputy Stanley's first set of questions, the specifics of the role of the group when it was set up were quite tight. For example, the remit of the group is to monitor the market. Twelve months ago, nobody understood what prices were being charged. In the interim, it was to establish whether or not companies all had flat-rate charges, for example. What we found out in the interim is that there is a range of different pricing models. This is to inform Government. Government, at the end of the day, is getting the information. We also make it available to consumers, which we will come on to in a minute. That also came up in one of the questions.

Our remit is to ensure that we are publishing the information. That information can be used. Whether or not it is, is a policy decision down the line. We do not have any policy powers. We do not have enforcement powers, for example, but we are informing the Department and the Government of the prices out there and whether or not those prices have shifted over the past six months.

There are a couple of bits of analysis we have looked at. One piece which I have looked at over the past couple of days is about price. For example, on a month-by-month basis, we are not finding that prices have gone up. Equally, over the four months, we also have not found that prices have shifted. That is a piece of work we are doing on an ongoing basis.

We have two meetings and two more reports to issue. Those reports will come out, one next week and one the following month. That will be the end of the group to inform whether or not prices have changed.

The central issue was whether or not there was gouging in the market. We are not finding any evidence of that right now. We are finding that prices have remained quite stable. In fact, what we have found is that even where there were green bin charges in place last December, those prices have not shifted. I expect we will begin seeing new prices coming in because some companies have announced that they would be introducing those fees from April and May onwards.