Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

That is a very valid question. When the decision was made at the time, it was clearly a public decision. It was not a secret decision. The Government said it was doing this to try to help save jobs and to protect employers from having to fire employees. It was a public decision and everybody knew about it. For every year that the CRU came in to this committee it could be scrutinised and asked if it still made sense to continue with that decision. The decision was made in 2009 and only reversed in 2022, I believe. For that period of 13 years the CRU was coming in and out of this committee and could have been asked at any point whether it was a good idea to continue with that policy.

As I said before, the CRU or the CER, as it was at the time, collaborated with the Government to discuss what could be done about network charges to protect jobs at the time. Clearly, the Government wanted to rebalance charges in favour of employers and it communicated that to the CRU. Ultimately, the regulator had the decision-making power. An official or a ministerial instruction was not sent down to the regulator to carry this out. A discussion was had and the CRU was asked and the decision was made. It was absolutely within the discretion of the regulator to decide whether or not to do so. The regulator had the power and chose to do it, in line with the Government's decision that it wished for it to happen. Then every year thereafter, the regulator came into this committee on a regular basis and could have been asked by any member of this committee whether it was a good idea to continue with this policy or not.

In 2022, with the invasion of Ukraine, spiralling electricity prices and in a situation of full employment in this country, it was very clear that electricity prices were much more of a concern than protecting large employers from costs. As a result, the rebalancing happened in the opposite direction, as I understand it.