Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 15 February 2022

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Commission for Regulation of Utilities Strategic Plan: Discussion

Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

I will take the first question regarding the moratorium on disconnections and then hand over. It is a matter we keep under constant review. We are monitoring the level of disconnections in the market at present, which is not high at all. Given there were no disconnections earlier in the year, we are still seeing quite low levels. The balance we are always striving for in looking at this is that in the absence of disconnections, and especially in the absence of engagement between suppliers and customers in the lead-up to disconnections, customers can land in a position of high debt that can be very detrimental. The point of the disconnection procedures that are in place is to avoid disconnections, which are not good for anyone. It is very important to have procedures that require the supplier to engage on a number of occasions with customers and to offer them options that can include prepay meters, payment plans or other options to pay down the debt. That was in some of the feedback we got from our customer stakeholder group, which reflected concerns around people in vulnerable situations and that those people could end up in a more vulnerable situation, if they have high debt at the end of a moratorium period. We will keep this under review but we have no plans at present to implement a moratorium. I will hand over to Mr. Gannon on data centres.