Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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There is one thing I do not understand, though the answer seems to be related to a policy decision by the Scottish Government. Mr. Millican seems to be saying there is no effective way of enforcing conservation because his company has no meters. I understand why it has no meters because it is charging between £200 and £800 for a meter and between £100 and £300 for the survey, which seems an astronomical charge considering that his Welsh colleague is providing a meter to homes for free. He said that one could detect leaks through district metering but these are a key consideration of the cost of production of water, as well as pipes and maintenance. There is no way of encouraging a reduction in water usage through a meter charge and there is no incentive to people to lower their bill, given that it costs over £1,000 to get a meter.

I gather that Scotland has the second highest per litre charge for water in the EU and that only Denmark is higher. There seems no real way people can lower their bills so it seems to be an ideological choice at Government level not to allow easy access to meters for people who, for environmental and cost reasons, want to pay less for their water. They have to pay a very high cost structure so that there can be an unmetered charge. Mr. Millican spoke of the tap left running but there is no reason for someone to switch off the tap. Without a domestic meter, the charge would be exactly the same as all other households in the area who turned off their tap. Is that right?