Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

My voice is weak. I have something.

Following up on the previous comments, we are still facing a cost-of-living crisis. There is no end in sight. Ordinary people are aware that although the wholesale prices of gas and electricity have dropped significantly, that reduction has not been passed on to them. This committee should tell the Government that it needs to consider extending the moratorium, not cut back on the supports it has been providing, and try to do something about the amount of profit gouging taking place.

The percentage of customers in arrears has decreased slightly where domestic electricity customers are concerned but has rocketed to 20% in respect of domestic gas customers. That is shocking. Attention needs to be paid to this issue, particularly given the level of profits being made by the gas companies when people are struggling.

Ms Trant referred to how the number of disconnections had decreased, but the table does not show that. Rather, it shows 648 non-payment of electricity account disconnections in 2021 and 2,031 in 2022. That was a more than 300% increase despite the moratorium and subsidies in 2022. Is there an explanation for this? There was a more than 100% increase in the number of domestic gas disconnections in the same period. I would like some quick answers to these questions. I have a couple more questions to ask. Maybe I will ask them now and someone can reply to what I have already asked later.

Regarding the information the CRU provided us, I asked in September about the data centres to be connected. The committee later wrote to the CRU asking it to answer my question. It has still not been answered. According to one of the CRU's replies, there were eight data centres at transmission system operator, TSO, level and eight at distribution system operator, DSO, level that had connection agreements but were not yet connected. Are they the same eight or are there 16? If they are due to be connected, how will that impact the estimate of the expected power demand from data centres that EirGrid gave us?

Excuse me, but my voice is weak. My questions are on arrears, the moratorium, the CRU's figures and the data centres.