Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

I will start off. The Deputy raised a very wide range of issues. It should not be thought that I said or wrote at any point that we had the highest domestic electricity prices. That is not the case. We do not and the CRU would not say that. Our electricity prices for domestic customers have tended to be in or around the euro area average over a number of years but that can go through cycles and we are on the higher end at the moment. We have monopoly network companies that are State-owned and State-run. We support that because in that instance there is a shareholder who is interested in making long-term investments for the benefit of consumers and society on the island. We have that in place in terms of ESB Networks and EirGrid and the roles that they play on the island.

We also believe that competitive markets have a genuine role and are a real opportunity to add value for Irish customers. Competition can deliver on value, choice and innovation in a way that monopoly companies struggle to. People might look back to the days when prices were cheaper but, in reality, at that time in terms of our network we probably had one of the most challenging situations we ever experienced in that it had not been invested in for many decades. That was why prices were kept low. That is not good value for customers in the short or long term. Our approach is to enable network investments that are critical for current and future customers, and their children, as we decarbonise the economy. We will take those costs to pay for investments over time and to ensure that we continue to invest in our networks. That has caused prices to increase over the last number of decades but for the right reasons and in the right ways so that we are supporting customers.

On gas as a transition fuel, and I agree gas is a fossil fuel and is not low carbon or renewable, we have the opportunity to decarbonise the gas system. That is something we should be looking to do, especially as we are talking to the committee today about the importance of gas as a transition fuel and the importance of investing in new gas fire generation or potential new gas entry points or supply routes. We are doing that with the opportunity of decarbonising that gas infrastructure in mind and continuing to add to the net-zero ambition we have for Ireland. We think there is a real opportunity there.

That will be more in the medium to longer term, it is not there right now.

On prepaid meters, on a day in March 2020 that was our last day in the office with our teams, we introduced two measures to support customers where we thought there might be real challenges. We did not know what we were facing into or how long it would take to come out of the Covid situation. We introduced a moratorium on disconnections and we also increased the gas prepay emergency credit from €10 to €100. We did it on gas rather than electricity because the gas infrastructure is older. The meters do not have a lot of flexibility and you cannot top up remotely, whereas with electricity you can. That is why we took that special measure on gas. We did so knowing it would be a lot harder to step out of it than it was to step into it but we thought it was the right thing to do because the idea of leaving customers, possibly unwell, in their homes, running out of gas with no ability to top up was just unconscionable so that is where we landed. Yes, it has been harder for gas customers, particularly for some customers to top up. We are really cognisant of that. We are working with industry, with suppliers, on that. They are genuinely trying to help their customers to build back up. An upgrade in the gas systems has gone live, or will do so shortly, which will enable a little bit more flexibility, when you top up on your gas meter, on the division between new gas and repaying debt or building back up your emergency credit. That is something we have been acutely aware of and are working on, not only with industry but also with our customer stakeholder group. It includes the likes of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, which really have their fingers on the pulse of the challenges customers face and we have listened very carefully to their input. We recognise that is an important issue and we are working on it. Hopefully we can continue to do better for customers in the future as we learn about that.

I will pass over to Mr. Gannon as part of the question related to "out of market" and markets versus the delivery of infrastructure in other ways: