Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to return to the topic of smart meters again. We have close to 1 million of them in family homes or in other users. How many of those are currently delivering savings, where people are able to use off-peak electricity and renewable electricity? The impression I get is that it is a small number but maybe I am wrong.

While there may be GDPR restrictions, it seems that we could develop a code of practice. We could be spelling out to customers the potential savings that are there. What active effort is being put into getting that close to 1 million connections to help manage our demand more efficiently? That is what will bring down carbon. It will ensure that we are not using gas or coal. We will be using the renewable source when it is on the grid.

I agree with the analysis that Mr. Gannon put forward, that to decarbonise we need to invest in infrastructure and we need to push up the price of carbon because otherwise, these alternative fossil fuels will be cheap. Where we have infrastructure in place and considerable effort has gone into rolling out smart meters, it seems unforgivable that there is blockage to delivering on that potential. I would like to explore that a bit further. It is hardly the case that the GDPR can stand in the way of a decarbonisation strategy by allowing consumers to use power in a smarter way in the long term. We need to get over that data and develop alternative ways of allowing people to utilise this benefit.