Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

On the issue of the ESB's non-compliance with the CRU's direction, I am just reading the commission's compliance and enforcement policy statement. It is very clear that the commission expects a culture of compliance among its regulated entities and that enforcement actions should "deliver a credible deterrence against non-compliance and ensure meaningful consequences". That is very much based on the impact of any non-compliance. The criteria for determining the impact of non-compliance consider the number of people affected, which is essentially every ESB customer over 12 years in this instance. There is also mention of those at risk and whether they include vulnerable customers. You would assume that many vulnerable customers were impacted by this overcharging and non-compliance. The monetary value is also a factor and I again imagine that this was considerable. There is also the issue of repetition. This non-compliance occurred annually over 12 years. There is also the question of intent and whether there was deliberate non-compliance or just a mishap. I assume the CRU is currently looking into that. Another is the perceived culture of compliance. If you do a Google search of "ESB" and "overcharging", you get quite a lot of hits from different news articles of overcharging by the ESB in certain circumstances over recent years.

My question for the commission is what steps will it take to ensure accountability in respect of this non-compliance.

What measures will be taken and when will they be taken? I presume there is an investigation under way. What lessons need to be learned from this because the CRU missed it on an annual basis for 12 years? As a self-reflection, the CRU needs to ask how it was missed and what changes are going to be put in place.