Mr. John Mullins:

We want to have key performance indicators, KPIs, and service level agreements, SLAs, with local authorities. We want to make sure there is some aspect of an arm’s length commercial arrangement between Irish Water and the local authorities. We take the view that essentially the local authorities will function on the basis that they will provide services, as they do today, for Irish Water and get paid for it. If they do so better than expected, we hope there will be bonuses. If not, there will be some penalties. That is how all our contracts in Bord Gáis are put together. It will be a standard SLA across the country. The date 2017 is only a time horizon for the programme. It should not be taken as an indication that SLAs will disappear in 2017.

We know all about an emergency response, particularly in getting around Dublin in the winter of 2010 when it was difficult to get to areas where there were problems with gas supply. We fully understand the emergency response from local authorities needs to be available every day, including Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. The facilitation of a digital dispatch service and a national call centre works for the gas industry. There is no reason we cannot work with the local authorities to have a single or lo-call number available for people to contact when there is an issue with water supply. We would expect the wheels of operations and maintenance to be put in motion in the same way as they are today.

The principle of equity across the country is vitally important. It is part of the gas and electricity system. We are comfortable with this principle and hope it will move forward in that there will be standards in domestic charging and a national customer charter with the principle of equity attached.

The freedom of information issue is covered in legislation, a matter over which we have no control. It is a matter for the Oireachtas on which to take a view. Historically, commercial semi-State companies have not been subject to freedom of information legislation.

On the fibre optic and telecom assets on water sites, they are held by the local authorities but were paid for by the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. They are run by eNet. We work with eNet and Aurora Telecom regularly. We have not had a conversation about telecom assets with the local authorities. We are at the point of trying to find out what water assets they have in the first instance and then perhaps might look at the fibre optic side. Up to €180 million was spent on these fibre optic assets. There should be an amalgamation of all of these assets such that we provide the last-mile solution. If we as a company can facilitate this, we are open to it. The transfer of assets is fundamentally a matter between the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources and the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

We spoke about arrangements between landlords and tenants and customer accounts which will start with the landlord. In the case of gas supply, the landlord holds the account until the tenant takes over tenancy and then it is transferred. In the gas business, out of 600,000 accounts, we do 100,000 switches a year purely on a change of tenancy. That is significant and we will see the same rate of changes in Irish Water. It will be a significant activity in trying to ensure landlords and tenants are aware of their responsibilities.

On an electromagnetic element to water meters, all I can say is that these are low power battery operated devices; therefore, emissions are irrelevant.