Mr. Paul O'Donoghue:

We will be looking to procure metering technology which will allow us a degree of redundancy within the technology. In that way, we will have meters that come from more than one party as well as meters capable of being read by more than one technology. This will ensure that if we run into difficulties with a contractor or with any of the technology we will have coverage. We can always extend other contracts to ensure we can go about our work. Therefore, no single meter will be deployed, rather a number of similar type meters. Neither will there be a single meter-reading technology but a number of technologies that are capable of reading the suite of meters. The question in regard to Deputy Stanley's meter is whether it will fit inside that suite. Hopefully, the local authority survey campaign, yet to be undertaken, will identify not only the Deputy's meter but many others that may exist. From that, we should be able to tell whether a meter will fit inside the spectrum we will specify. If it does fit we will probably use it but we will have to inspect it, subject to its age, battery condition and whether we can clip on units that can pulse readings to us. We will need to assess whether the meter can be used. The chances are that in most instances we will fit new meters in order to ensure they can be read.