Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I hope Deputy Moynihan is wrong, but if he is right I would be concerned about the point he has made about pay-as-you-go meters. The protocol we have in place prevents disconnections where a pay-as-you-go meter is installed. I would be very concerned if his information is correct in that regard and I undertake to act as he says. If he can give me any more precise information on it I would be especially pleased.

The thing should be going in the other direction. We are trying to encourage consumers, especially consumers at risk of fuel poverty, to allow the meter to be installed or to enter into a payment plan to avoid disconnection. That is the real issue. Happily, it has not affected us yet this year and I hope it will not, but if we were to have a severe winter, Deputy Moynihan is correct to draw attention to it.

The questions Deputy Moynihan raised about the regulator, company profits, prices and so on are major issues in energy policy at the moment everywhere I look. One could not have opened a newspaper or watched a television programme in Britain in the past three or four weeks but it is the subject of political and economic contention. We have seen the big six hike their prices there between 8% and 10.4%. The ESB has given a commitment to freeze prices until the end of the year and into next year, and similarly Bord Gáis Energy. That is welcome but it does not mean to say that there are not people under genuine pressure.

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