Professor Alan Barrett:

The entire water charges issue is a mystery to me. Perhaps economists are overly simplistic people. We do not give electricity to people for free or include it in their property charge because we want there to be some relationship between what one uses and what one pays. I have terrible trouble getting my head around the water debate. I admit that I did not understand the views of 50% to 60% of the Irish population. That is probably why I am sitting on this side of the table while the committee members are sitting on the other side.