Dr. Paul McGowan:

At the moment, prepayment meters are not smart in terms of hardship cases. Lifestyle prepayment meters are smart. The customers being referred to by the Deputy are people in financial difficulty and they would tend to be on hardship prepayment meters, which are not smart. It is correct that people can self-disconnect in that scenario. Under the new national smart metering programme, all the national smart meters are capable of becoming pay-as-you-go meters if the customer so wishes. It will be smart pay as you go, which means that all customers will operate under a new system and their energy usage at any point will be known. They can top up online and it will go straight to their meter or they can top up via a shop. This means they will be able to go through processes similar to those they go through now. It will be slightly different, but it is smart and there will be far more rich data available.