Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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I welcome Ms MacEvilly and her colleagues. It is good to engage again with them on this very important topic. Obviously, it is an issue that we have all engaged with over the past two years at least. I want to touch on the issue of arrears first, particularly in light of the commissioner's opening remarks. He acknowledged the emergency electricity credit and the benefit it has had, which is starting to wane now. The commissioner highlighted a number of issues experienced over the extended winter period, including the higher prices. He also highlighted the lack of knowledge, awareness or take-up of the hardship fund that each of the energy providers has, and wants to utilise. Does the CRU have data in relation to that? What kind of percentage are we talking about, not necessarily by company but, by and large, in respect of the overall uptake? It is worrying in itself. There were several advertisements and literature was posted out to households about the funds. I am concerned about what the commissioner said about the rebound of arrears.

With the moratorium on disconnections ending at the end of March, it has been highlighted that there is data on coming to the CRU. I think it is the April data. I am wondering about the reporting mechanism for that. Prior to the disconnection moratorium, how frequently would the CRU receive data about disconnections? How does that last data set compare with what the CRU envisages the data to be for April?

A lot of of questions have been asked about smart metering. It is great, because the number of smart meters has increased since our last engagement. The CRU had a target and I think it has been exceeded, if I am not mistaken. However, I have been contacted by customers who were on the level pay plan, which meant that their bills were levelled out across the year and an average was taken. When they converted to a smart meter, they received incorrect information from the supplier that their level pay plan would remain in tact, when of course it would not be, and their price plan completely changed. The household to which I have referred would have been on a fixed income. That impacted negatively on it. I must say that the issue was resolved to the customers' satisfaction in the end, but it took a lot of time and phone calls. Anybody who has engaged with any energy supplier knows how long you have to be on the phone for that. You probably have a bigger phone bill than arrears bill at the end of it, because it takes a while. What I would like to know, from the CRU's experience as the regulator, is whether it is aware of people who have converted to the smart meter from the level pay plan and other plans out there, and who have been negatively impacted or have been given misinformation by the energy supplier. I will leave it there for now and I might come back in again with the remaining time I have.

Ms Aoife MacEvilly:I will pick up on some of the Deputy's points and I might refer to my colleague, Ms Trant, on other aspects to it. On the take-up of hardship funds, I think that at the moment what we have is more anecdotal information from the suppliers and, indeed, some of the agencies that support customers, who would always say that there are a lot of customers out there who are reluctant to take them up. We will be looking at that in the context of reviewing what worked this winter and what we should be doing further, so we might have better data there.

On the reporting frequency on disconnections, that is something we get quarterly generally. Ms Trant might comment on whether we have seen an increase in complaints on the level pay-related smart meters and other areas.