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

I thank Mr. Regan for his presentation. One of the areas that interests me is what Mr. Regan had to say about consumer protection. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities was before the committee last week and we discovered that of the 72,000 premises that now have smart meters only 44,000 of those have been offered the opportunity to switch to cheaper off-peak or renewable electricity.

This directive is designed to respond to that. Why is it so low in Ireland? Will it take this directive to change behaviour? Is there capacity to anticipate some of the expectations of this legislation? The officials might tell us exactly what requirements will be placed on companies to ensure smart meters are used.

We do not have what Mr. Regan described as useful advanced information about customers' bills being presented in a timely way which would facilitate ease of switching. We have completely the opposite, with maximum friction put in and minimum information to allow customers to avoid much higher charges than are necessary. What protections and obligations are going to be placed on companies and how soon are we likely to see them in Ireland? Could we move ahead of the legislation to introduce such protections? A lot of consumers are under considerable pressure at the moment.