Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent)

To come back to the question on the large energy users, I want to pull out on a couple of things to be clear what is and is not, because we have been told previously that CRU can and cannot do different things. That has shifted over the period of time. For example, on prioritisation, there is prioritisation in terms of access to connections. When we look at PR6 in terms of the increase and the ring-fencing, prioritisation can be one approach. There is also ring-fencing as a way of guaranteeing it. Is there ring-fencing of connections for housing and others? Is it the case that the CRU is continuing with the position that it cannot prioritise? I am surprised by it on two levels. First, we have the public duty, equality and human rights that apply to the CRU and its operations. Second, in the functioning and mandate of CRU, one of the things should be to ensure we have a properly functioning State, with housing obviously being a key priority in relation to that.

What is needed from CRU's perspective for it to start prioritising and-or ring-fencing connections for households, housing or public needs, such as hospitals? There are clear examples - I do not want to get bogged down with examples - of situations where we had houses wait eight months for connection in an area where we have data centres that are fully connected and operating.