Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising the question. First, I acknowledge the fact that energy and gas prices are very high. They are likely to rise more in the months ahead before they level off and start falling again. I also remind the Deputy that we had a budget only last week which gave every household, including households that use pay-as-you-go meters, €600 in energy credits over the course of the winter. As a lot of people who use pay-as-you-go meters are on social welfare or are low-income families, they will benefit from the double social welfare payments, the double child benefit payment and measures like the €500 bonus for people receiving the working family payment. All of that will arrive in people's pockets and put more money in their pockets before Christmas. None of that was in the Sinn Féin alternative budget proposal. A lot of help is on the way.

As the ESRI pointed out in its analysis, the least well-off 30% of people will be fully protected from the rise in the cost of living at least until the end of winter. For that reason, the vast majority of people should and will be able to manage their bills over the next few months. I acknowledge that there will be some hardship cases - there always are - and for that reason we need to help. For people who are on bill pay, the moratorium on disconnections runs until the end of February, and for vulnerable customers until the end of March. For people using pay-as-you-go meters, the Deputy and I both understand that that is a much more complicated system because of the way it operates. However, the overdraft people have is now extended to €20, so people can run over the meter by up to €20 without facing the risk of disconnection. In addition, having spoken to some people who are on pay-as-you-go meters, it is already the case that, at least in a lot of cases, people cannot be disconnected on a weekend so that people have the time to top up. That is not the full solution and it is not an adequate solution at this stage. I appreciate the point the Deputy is making about equality of treatment between those on bill pay and those on pay-as-you-go meters. With that in mind, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications has been meeting with the energy companies today and yesterday to see what additional measures we can put in place to protect people who are on pay-as-you-go meters.

As it stands, vulnerable customers who are on pay-as-you-go meters have to be put on the most economic tariff. The amount they can run over by has been extended by €10 to €20. At least in some cases, that protection is in place to prevent disconnections at the weekend. I know that is not enough and we will need to come up with a better solution for those hardship cases to make sure people are not disconnected over the winter, regardless of how they pay. Those meetings today and yesterday involving the Minister and the energy companies are happening and we should be able to give the Deputy a fuller response in due course.

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