Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The estimated cost of installing meters has increased by 20%. That represents a huge proportion of the taxpayers' and public moneys that have been soaked up thus far by Irish Water for the metering programme. I must assume that the consultants who came up with this estimate were the same people who were paid €85 million last year. There is considerable anger about that. Surely it would have been far better had some of this money been used to address real problems of water conservation and reducing water usage. In May 2013, the consultants estimated the cost at €431 million, but by the time the contracts were awarded in June, the figure was €539 million. Meanwhile, a survey carried out by local authorities, which would have been more accurate, came up with a figure of €539 million. Does the Minister not find it unusual that the figure determined through the local authorities' survey happened to correspond with the estimated cost of the contracts for installing meters arrived at six months previously?

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