Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will follow up on what Deputy Costello said. For people listening at home, the CRU has a role to protect consumers and to help them to reduce energy costs. There appears to be a very hand-off approach by the CRU. It does not seem to want to make direct interventions in the market. I listened to the discussion about the prepay tariffs. Across the water, there are capped default tariffs. In the CRU's letter to the committee it stated that it had not seen the evidence to warrant an intervention. What evidence did it look at in that? The CRU refers to the risk of energy companies fleeing the market. However, is it not true that we have a more robust regulatory environment, thanks to the CRU, for energy companies trying to set up in Ireland, and that this is part of the reason energy companies have left? It was not about the change in the tariff but the fact that the proper checks and balances were not put in before energy companies set up in Britain.

I discussed the PSO levy with the witnesses on the last occasion they were before the committee. In the North, the levy is designed so that householders pay a smaller contribution than industry. Is the CRU looking at that as a way to bring down costs for households?

Smart meters are about reducing peak demand. What intervention has been made to ensure that the suppliers are encouraging people to use the smart meters? A freedom of information request from the ESB showed that hundreds of people have opted out of smart meters and have gone back to daytime and night-time tariffs. There is clearly an issue in that regard.

There is also the issue of switching. It drives many people mad to hear that they should shop around or switch. The last energy poverty strategy, which lapsed in 2019, clearly pointed to the fact that there are barriers to people switching. Social Justice Ireland has repeatedly stated that there are barriers to people switching. In its role as regulator what is the CRU doing to overcome those barriers, to identify what they are and how to help people to do it? There appears to be a very hands-off approach from the CRU when it comes to making direct interventions in the market.