Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

It is a balance.

We ran with a longer period for a disconnection moratorium during the Covid pandemic because we were in uncharted territory. We got important feedback to the effect that because suppliers were not engaging with customers in a disconnection conversation, if you like, many customers stopped paying and got themselves into considerable difficulty with debt. We are seeing the outcome of that now. Our customer care team is dealing with some difficult cases. It is about balance. Nobody wants disconnections. The process is there not to have a disconnection at the end of it but to have an engaging customer who is still working with the supplier, entering a payment plan or finding an option that helps them to retain their supply. We will monitor that over the winter. That is why we are stepping up our monitoring of what is happening. There have been quite low levels of disconnection since the moratorium for Covid was lifted. We will continue monitoring the situation to try to understand what we are seeing. The worst thing that could happen for customers is that they stop engaging, stop paying and get into a debt situation that is unmanageable for them. That is the balance we are trying to strike.

The Deputy asked about the most beneficial tariff. We focus that protection on customers who are facing financial hardship and using prepayment meters. We focus on vulnerable customers. If that beneficial tariff is extended to everybody, the price will increase for everybody. We want to focus on the customers with the most need.