Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I thank the witnesses for making the journey to attend here today. Their presentation has been very helpful and informative. Much of the work we are doing, in formulating our opinions, is with the aim of having as fair a model as possible while ensuring that we have a system that is fit for purpose into the future. Following on from Deputy O'Dea's comments, the fairness question arose in my mind when I envisaged two pensioners on a low income living in a large, old house compared to a younger family in a smaller house where there are two earners and that potentially the people in the bigger house pay more. How does that fairness aspect work out? Mr. Millican said there is a 25% discount for a single occupancy but what is the position for people in those circumstances?

Taking Mr. Millican's points on metering, it is fair to say there is no way of dealing with excessive usage by individual properties through the charging mechanism. I take it from what Mr. Millican, based on goodwill, that the responsibility is not put back on the public to play their part in conservation as part of the charging mechanism? Would that be a fair comment?

Mindful that the witnesses are sitting beside our regulator, what type of regulation do they come under? Does it fall back on the Minister or do they have a regulator who plays a role?

The focus of all the questions so far has been on the water element as opposed to the wastewater element, which is half of our interest here. How many septic tanks would the organisations be dealing with in Wales and Scotland? How much of a consideration are they? When both Welsh Water and Scottish Water were established, what type of wastewater problems did they encounter and inherit? What progress have they made in dealing with those problems? In Ireland, raw sewage is going into our watercourses at 40 points. We have a huge legacy issue, for various reasons, in that regard and these issues have to be addressed. That will be a key consideration for us.

Finally, what way does a charging mechanism impact on the wastewater element? Is the witnesses' charging mechanism divided between drinking water and wastewater? Can they give us a breakdown of that also?