Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 14 November 2018

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Third Report of the Citizens' Assembly: Discussion (Resumed)

1:59 pm

Mr. Robert Watt:

The PSO is levied on consumers to pay for the higher costs of electricity related to peat extraction because it is inefficient compared to other forms of energy generation. I believe that would require the European Commission to consider how that would operate in the future in the absence of peat extraction. It is a charge that is currently charged on household bills and everything else being equal these would be lower in the future as we move to a different form of fuel mix without peat. There is a potential saving there.

On the final question, the first point I made about charging points is an interesting one. That is part of the public infrastructure that we are going to have to improve. If we are going to have a significant increase in the number of electric vehicles then there are going to have to be more charging points around the country.