Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Minister will have to agree with me that we cannot have social solidarity or equality of opportunity alongside gas and electricity disconnections. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action this week that there will be a moratorium on disconnections this winter. With five days to go before the budget, my office is receiving a lot of queries on this. The question we are being asked again and again is whether this moratorium will extend to prepay customers or customers who use other metered utilities. Prepay accounts for approximately 10% of the market, so this is a key question for up to 200,000 households. Will the Minister outline what is the position on this?

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