Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 15 February 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Commission for Regulation of Utilities Strategic Plan: Discussion

Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

We have costs that are at the euro area average.

We believe competition is delivering benefits in the form of value and choice to customers. We found it is the customers who switch or are active in some way who are gaining greater benefits. Therefore, our interventions at the time were to promote greater activity or support customers in switching. The first of our three main interventions was the estimated annual bill, the objective being to have an easy point of comparison for customers. One of the issues we found was that customers were really confused by supplier offers. If confused, they tended to make no choice. That was a genuine barrier. We did work with the ESRI behavioural economists on this to support an intervention around better information for customers. Another intervention concerned the three-month notification, which means that when suppliers are coming to the end of their contract, they give due notice to customers that would facilitate their ability to switch. I have momentarily forgotten the third intervention. I am sure somebody can remind me.

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