Mr. Dermot Nolan:

The supplier would generally define arrears as one has not paid any portion of one's bill within, say, four weeks of payment. On the customer, in a question we do not define that. We say: "Are you in arrears?" and the customer says: "Well, no, I am not."

I would comment on the general issue that Deputy O'Donnell raised. To some extent I am not sure - I think I should say this. In terms of the people struggling with energy bills, certainly in our conversations with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and MABS, they are probably not senior citizens. This is purely informal. We have no way of determining who really is struggling or not, unfortunately, or the profile of customers who are finding difficulty paying bills, but our sense from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and MABS, and even from talking to the suppliers, those who are struggling most are in fact families, often families with children. Obviously it has been reduced but the protections offered to senior citizens in terms of the free gas and electricity allowance tend to pay most of their bills. I am not in any sense trivialising some of the difficulties facing senior citizens, but in terms of the people who appear to be in arrears and having the most difficulty paying bills and are seeking assistance, most of them are not senior citizens. We think they are predominantly people with families.