Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

No - since we have been involved in setting price controls, it has been a steady increase in investment and a steady increase in the level of costs. We would have seen small percentage increases over the five-year periods as we moved along. Frankly, when we first got involved in network regulation, it followed a period of underinvestment in networks and we had to regain ground. On top of that, we had the decarbonisation agenda where we needed to invest further to facilitate that. Notwithstanding the efficiencies, the reality is that we have needed to support additional build of infrastructure and additional operational costs associated with the operation of the infrastructure and new technologies we are hoping to introduce such as smart metering.

So it is expected that the percentage to consumers will just continue to rise.