Mr. Rory Somers:

The smart metering programme is a large-scale infrastructure project to replace all the electricity meters in Ireland by the end of 2024 or early 2025. It involves more than €1 billion of investment with 2.3 million meters to be replaced. Therefore, it will take time to implement. The programme commenced in 2019. As the Senator pointed out, some 750,000 smart meters have been installed already. Each month, some 40,000 meters are installed. By the end of this year, the project is on target to have installed 1.1 million smart meters, which will be approximately half of all electricity consumers, certainly domestic consumers. Returning to the seminar with the Commission, this puts us ahead of many European member states. Some large countries have fully rolled out their electricity smart meter programmes, but a greater number of member states have done no work in smart metering. Therefore, we are relatively well advanced.

The programme is managed by the CRU and ESB Networks is involved in the delivery of the meters themselves. The CRU is an independent regulator. I probably do not need to explain that the Department's role is never to instruct the CRU. It has statutory power and obligations. We do, however, work closely with the CRU on the national smart metering programme and we receive regular updates in that regard. Specifically on the question of tariffs, there is an obligation on all suppliers now to provide at least one standard smart tariff. Typically, this is a day-night peak tariff. In the context of tariffs as well, though, Ireland has been operating time-of-use tariffs for more than 30 years in the context of day-night meters. It is a well-established pattern in Ireland that people have been incentivised to move in this way and to shift from peak times. My understanding, and I could stand corrected on this point, is that this off-peak time runs from 11 p.m.-----