Mr. Paul McGowan:

The charges to which the Deputy refers are the figures of €244 and €488 which we published in July. These were based on the amount of revenue we were willing to allow Irish Water after making the efficiency reduction of 8.2%. That efficiency reduction had been identified before we went out to public consultation.

Let me outline the process we have gone through with regard to the charges. We have looked in detail at both OPEX and CAPEX figures for Irish Water. We have compared the Irish Water charges with those of equivalent water companies in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Great Britain.