Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his comprehensive reply. The Minister's original commitment made in November 2007 was for 25,000 homes with an estimated cost of €10 million and the first meters to be installed in the second quarter of 2008. It seems the information the Minister is now giving us is rather different from that plan set out in 2007. Why was there such a difference between the two?

The national roll-out was indicated in previous press releases as being over five years. It is a pretty costly business and one of the questions I have been asked to ask the Minister is who pays. Obviously ultimately the customer pays for services provided. How will that be structured for individuals with smart meters? While I appreciate this is at the experimental stage, I do not want that as an answer. There needs to be some specification or brief as to what this will do. There is a genuine concern that the ultimate beneficiary of smart metering will be the provider rather than the consumer. How does the Minister envisage the benefits being spread between the provider and the consumer?

It seems pretty tough on the people who took the advice of availing of the competition in the market, over which the Minister is very proud to have presided, and moved to An Bord Gáis or Airtricity. It seems they are now blocked from being involved in the smart meter programme. Why is that the case? I had understood that even if a consumer moved to another provider the meter still belonged to the ESB.

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