Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

I thank the Deputy. In respect of price increases whether for prepay or bill pay customers, the requirement is the customers are given a 30-day notification of any price increase. There is no requirement for suppliers to seek approval or otherwise from the CRU. It is, and has been for many years, a competitive market and what keeps price pressure on, if you like, is the fact that if customers see price increases they will vote with their feet and go to cheaper offerings. On the specific price increase the Deputy is referring to, I am not sure I had specific knowledge of that but it is not a requirement for the companies to seek approval or otherwise from us.

I absolutely acknowledge the challenge of increasing prices, whether it is standing charges or unit charges or prepay or bill pay, is really difficult for customers. I fully acknowledge that. Driving this is the global, and particularly European, increase in the cost of gas that is obviously having a direct impact on gas bills and an equal one on electricity because gas is one of our primary fuels for power generation. It is driven by those factors and while competition can keep downward pressure, ensure companies pass on price reductions as quickly as possible and ensure they offer as much value and choice as they can to their customers and to attract new customers, it cannot eliminate that underlying cost surge we have seen in the gas markets in Europe, which is unprecedented. The Deputy will be aware Ministers at an EU level and all energy regulators at an EU level are working collaboratively to see what we can do. That is why we have the toolkit. Many of the tools are around supporting competitive markets on the basis this is what will mitigate as best we can the impacts for customers. The toolkit includes options to support switching for customers and obviously interventions around the €200 electricity credit, which we are happy to support.

What is driving the complexity is customers want different things from electricity supplies. They want better information. They want the ability to control their costs or have knowledge of them to understand what is driving consumption in their home and what they can do to reduce that consumption. Customers are, for example, very keen to get involved in microgeneration.

Much of the complexity will come from exporting and payments for exports, which is a new set of complexity. Many of the Deputies here spoke about customers being able to engage in some of the market activity. This is what is driving the complexity. At the heart of that, the onus is on us to also make this navigable for customers and, particularly, customers who perhaps do not have the ability to, for example, invest in microgeneration, retrofit their homes or whatever they might wish to do. Give them simple things, such as time-of-use tariffs where a person might decide not to turn on the washing machine between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. because that is expensive, but instead turn it on after 8 p.m. because that is cheap. Really simple things, such as that, are making it simple for customers. I agree that there is an absolute onus on us to provide that clarity and simplicity of choice for customers in the context of increasing complexity.

I might turn to Mr. Gannon on the renewable costs, if he wants to come in on that one. The question was around the fact that private companies are supported by State intervention. I think that was what Deputy Smith's question was.