Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the reasons for the Deputy's questions but I cannot make assumptions on what Siemens was thinking. It is a private company. Similarly, I cannot make assumptions about any of the other submissions made during the public consultation. The letter from Siemens, which I have read, was received during the public consultation phase and raises a number of issues and recommendations on how the establishment of the entity should proceed and how the metering programme should be implemented. I genuinely do not know the assumptions behind its participation in the consultation, nor does my Department. It made its own assumptions and it wrote the letter on that basis. It was a matter for those participating in the public consultation to offer ideas or raise concerns based on their own assumptions. Those assumptions were the company's business, although I do not agree with many of them.

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