Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The suggestion that we adjourn is excellent. Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice, who is new to the House, put it very graciously when he said there is nothing wrong about not knowing something and having to revisit it and recalculate. That is the right thing to do. In that gracious sense, it is an opportunity to reconsider the whole issue and get the figures right. Simply put, 2 million is the number of registration forms that Irish Water posted out to households. The 2011 census showed there were 1.64 million residential households. That means the difference of 340,000 are the holiday homes and the unoccupied residences in the country. It is worth clarifying this and just stand back and pause. Earlier I asked that we stop the whole exercise.

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