Mr. Jerry Grant:

In terms of connections and metering, opt-ins are one question, but new build and the rehabilitation of the network make it possible to have a meter box which then makes adding a meter very cost-effective. We would think it is a sensible policy to have meters where one can be installed for €40 or €50 as the marginal cost when there is either a new build or one is replacing the network. That makes sense.

We are putting in place a national control system. There were individual sub-county systems that differed a lot and not everyone had full telemetry on the district metering area. Dublin had a relatively good system and we have taken that into Irish Water as the bulwark of our system.

In terms of acting on leaks, surprisingly it has taken three or four letters to get people to engage on the first fix. We have 50,000 engaged at the moment out of almost 100,000 that we have notified. One of the points is that people do not seem to be aware of the damage that can be caused to their property by very significant leaks.

In Scotland, their position is policy driven to a large extent. On the core point of per capitausage and the comparison internationally, including all the high outliers leaves the figure in the 130s of litres, but omitting them gives about 125 litres as an average figure. If all the 7% is distilled out, as it were, we are down to about 110, which is comparable with Denmark and Germany and countries like that. When we start looking at countries in southern Europe or the USA, we are looking at lifestyle changes and the way people live and it is very hard to make a comparison.