Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)

The ESB also commented in the context of Storm Éowyn last year that the disparate nature of our population base poses a huge utility challenge. Mr. Laffey distracted me there. I will get back on course.

On the issue of pay, I will give a theme and then try to cover a number of areas. Irish Water was established as a standalone utility with the expectation that there would be income from domestic and non-domestic customers. I suppose the vast majority of the income now comes from the State and there is no expectation that it will be any other way in the future. I want to look at the structural things that are left as a result of the model that was placed on Irish Water, and whether there are additional costs as a result of that. The first one mentioned was the pay model that is applied. Mr. McCarthy's clarification around increments versus pay at risk is interesting. Has Irish Water ever done a comparison between the two models as to which would be more expensive?