Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 31 January 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities

Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

There is a lot to that. In each annual tariff decision, the permanent measure, as it was at the time, was still in place, and the €50 million was being rebalanced. That was in every annual tariff decision from the date in question until more recently, when we decided to reverse it. Over the past couple of years, we signalled that we were looking into this. We initiated a major review of overall network charges in the context not only of this measure but also more generally, having regard to how we were using networks in Ireland and determining the right basis for charging various types of customers for different uses given the decarbonisation agenda and the different ways in which customers use energy and networks in Ireland. We started that review. What happened was that, in the context of the more recent crisis and the work on the national energy security framework series of actions, we realised we did not have time to wait for the outcome of the review and wanted to bring forward the reversal of the measure. Would Ms Kavanagh like to address some of the other points?