Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Tuesday, 31 January 2023
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action
Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities
Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I have a couple of questions. On the negative PSO levy, when will people see the benefit? Are they already doing so? What is the position on the measures relating to windfall taxes and the two versions of those? Has there been an assessment of the impact they will have on domestic bills? When will domestic customers see the impact?
Ms Aoife MacEvilly:The first benefit of the PSO levy came when we reduced it to zero in October, but we did have to put in place several operational and logistical measures to provide a PSO payment. In addition, both primary and secondary legislation were needed to enable it. At this point, our expectation is that the final piece of legislation will be signed this week. The commission will make a decision this week on implementing it. The target will then be to have a payment back to customers instead of a rate of zero or a charge, starting with bills commencing on 1 March and continuing for the remaining seven months of the year. The full 12 months of costs will be concentrated in that period.
The question on windfall taxes relates to the inframarginal rent cap. We had some information on it this morning. Mr. Melvin might comment on it.