Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for the presentations. Is the CRU collecting data on prepay meters? When a prepaid meter is being installed, is it a smart meter? I am worried about people who are suffering energy poverty self-disconnecting. Can that be tracked using a smart meter? Can we collect that kind of information, in order that the CRU knows if people are self-disconnecting? We see people die on the streets every winter in Ireland. We do not want people dying in their homes on top of that.

I have another question around the energy poverty strategy that has expired. We need one. We need to reach out to groups. I am pleased the moratorium on vulnerable customer disconnections is being extended, but how is that classified? An ever-increasing cohort is vulnerable to energy poverty. The last time we had the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, before the committee - which the Minister might be interested in - we talked about the fact that some Travellers had not received the €200 of electricity back. Whatever about being cold in one's home, anybody who has spent a night in a caravan during the winter on a cold night is absolutely rigid and freezing. We already had a tragedy in Carrickmines. We do not want a tragedy with Travellers dying in their caravans.

We have been out and about and the only story in town, apart from bus na scoile, is energy costs. I have been talking to many SMEs. They feel that while the red carpet is rolled out for data centres and FDIs, there is very little for them. The European Commission announced approximately €200 million for businesses. We will need to add to that. There will need to be a financial support package for small businesses.

The reason the witnesses are here today is that we are in the middle of a climate crisis. We are talking about it from that aspect. Data centres and these companies are using considerable electricity and energy. We were talking earlier about decoupling gas from wind energy, which I hope the Minister, as a Green Minister, will push very strongly in Europe, because people have to see a national dividend from the number of wind farms and the amount of wind energy that we are able to produce in Ireland. There has to be some kind of a national dividend for companies working in Ireland. Many bad faith actors are trying to muddy the waters around the fact that those prices are coupled. They should be decoupled.

Will the Minister elaborate further on the plans he has for meeting a 15% demand reduction? If we do not reduce our demand by 15%, are we are looking at rationing of electricity?

Could the Minister talk about that as well?