Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 15 February 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action
Commission for Regulation of Utilities Strategic Plan: Discussion
Mr. Jim Gannon:
There are two main thrusts. I will try to ensure that I capture everything the Deputy asked about. In the first instance, we had more than 50 respondents in the consultation process. For us, that is nearly a record-setting level. We took more time than we had anticipated in producing our work. In the end, we took an additional three or four weeks because we had 50 responses that we absolutely wanted to go through and take into consideration.
With regard to confidentiality, if a body is entering a consultation response that it believes to be commercially sensitive or confidential, we ask that this be declared. Consequently, the submission would not be released. We allow that so that when people give us their consultation responses, they will be as open as possible. People often provide us, in our capacity as an economic regulator, with material that is more commercially sensitive or that they perceive to be such. We offer confidentiality to people to try to get their perspectives. That would not prefer them with-----