Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the issue of metering, I hate to bang on about a subject but it is a critically important intervention. A point that has been made a number of times today is that the EPA does not have sufficiently accurate data. This legislation is an attempt to remedy that and to put us on a more secure footing where we would have a better understanding and real-time data going forward to manage our water resource. When Mr. Ó Coigligh is coming back to the committee on other aspects, I ask that he respond in writing with a memo on the proposal for metering, micro metering and, most critically, the publishing of data from those meters. I do not want to revisit the Irish Water debacle and the matter of the 500,000 water meters in domestic homes but if the State does not ensure a meter is put on every abstraction it will be a bit difficult to understand the logic.

What are the proposed timelines and next steps for this legislation in terms of bringing it to the Seanad, the Dáil and bringing it back to the committee? It would be helpful to know that.