Niall Collins (Limerick, Fianna Fail)

The recent census figures on which we can rely state that apartments, bed-sits and pre-1960 buildings combined come to a figure of 503,000 units. There is a fairly large discrepancy between the figure the Minister quotes and the figure the CSO quotes. Can the Minister elaborate on his statement that the units that cannot be metered in the short term would be charged on an assessed basis? Will they be means-tested? Will it be a flat rate charge? Can the Minister give Members any more detail on it? Can the Minister give the public who will face the wider metering project and the rest of us any idea on the structure of the free allocation and the pricing structure per litre above the free allocation?

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