Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group)
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I welcome the witnesses and thank them for their presentations. The information that they have supplied has been interesting. Welsh Water and Scottish Water have confirmed how foolish Ireland has been in wasting €500 million in installing domestic water meters in recent years. Many of us have been calling for the prioritisation of district metering to identify leaks and deal with wasteful usage for quite some time.

It is very welcome news to hear that what we have been saying is largely correct.

Most of that has been covered by other members of the committee so I want to take a different tack to ask about the structure of the witnesses' organisations and how they deal with individual water users. For example, how are they dealt with on a daily basis? Are there local or regional offices? Do water users have direct contact with the witnesses' organisations? How do the organisations deal with bursts as they arise? How are water users dealt with regarding communication with them in that instance and indeed for planned outages?

The other side that we have not discussed much yet at the committee is the whole question of wastewater. I want to specifically ask about the witnesses' organisations responsibilities, if any, for sewers. There are significant difficulties in this country in relation to sewers or combined drains or whatever one wants to call them. Where blockages occur, particularly in streets or estates, how are those blockages dealt with in both Wales and Scotland?