Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I acknowledge that the electricity credit announced in the budget will go some way towards helping families struggling to keep up with rocketing energy prices. However, without a price cap the average energy bill has continued to rise, with some families stating it is like paying a second mortgage or double rent. This is highly unsustainable. Shortly after the budget announcement, electricity and gas suppliers announced additional price hikes, putting severe financial pressure on people.

In the first half of 2022, there were 712 domestic electricity and 309 domestic gas disconnections due to non-payment of accounts. While the CRU has announced enhanced consumer protection measures for this winter, including an extension to moratoriums on disconnections from 1 December until 28 February, some of my constituents in Louth and east Meath have come to my clinic this week worried sick and asking if this can be implemented sooner as they cannot afford the significant increase in bills, on top of the inflated price of food. While I acknowledge that, for vulnerable customers, the moratorium has been extended from 1 October to 31 March, I ask the Government to implement a one-rule-for-all approach to these extensions. Everybody needs protection from disconnection as a matter of urgency.

With regard to people on pay-as-you-go energy meters, it seems the only offer being made is a reduction from 25% to 10% in the debt repayment suppliers can deduct from a pay-as-you-go top-up payment. There is still a question over how the emergency payments are going to be paid to pay-as-you-go customers, given that the metering system cannot provide the data to identify these people. There are approximately 346,000 households with prepaid electricity meters but because it is not possible to see when a pay-as-you-go customer's meter is running out, getting payments to these people quickly is a challenge. While I acknowledge that there is a €3 million hardship fund administered by MABS and St. Vincent De Paul to help households to top up their energy meters, this protective measure is insufficient. Apart from the word of the Taoiseach that nobody will be disconnected, what guarantee do these customers have that they will not be disconnected this winter?

Another issue the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, raised last week is self-disconnections. The PrepayPower website still states: "If you do not keep your PPP PAYG Meter topped up with credit, it will self-disconnect and your electricity supply will cut off." What will be done about these self-disconnections? On vulnerable customers, the PrepayPower website states:

The CRU has put in place a rule whereby [registered] Vulnerable Customers cannot be disconnected for non-payment of [arrears] during winter months. [This applies to both gas and electricity.] It is important that all of our customers ... categorised as Vulnerable ... understand that this rule cannot apply to them whilst on our [pay-as-you-go] supply

While the promotion of a vulnerable customer register is welcome, what burden is being placed on suppliers to actively promote the vulnerable customer register and the protections it offers from 1 November? Will the CRU oversee this as well as the electricity credit scheme and, most important, does this apply to pay-as-you-go customers? The Taoiseach affirmed that no vulnerable person would be disconnected this winter but there is evidently a mismatch between his definition of vulnerable and that of the CRU, which characterises vulnerable customers as having certain specific medical conditions. I ask for clarity on that today. Is it a medical vulnerability, vulnerability to poverty or both?

It must be remembered that behind every meter, whether pay-as-you-go or bill pay, are people.

People are in a difficult place and we are crucifying people who are on pay-as-you-go plans. We need to make sure that we look after them and that they have a proper Christmas. I acknowledge that the Government and the CRU are planning on implementing the financial hardship meter. This is a measure for those in financial hardship where households have opted for a pay-as-you-go meter to help to cut costs. At present, suppliers are not required to place customers with a financial hardship meter on any discounted tariff. From 1 December, all customers with a financial hardship meter are to be placed on the cheapest tariff available from their supplier. Again, this measure is supportive but it needs to be implemented sooner than 1 December.

As part of steps to protect households this winter, the CRU has also extended debt repayment periods up to 24 months. However, given that the cost of living has only ramped up in the past 12 months, and with the war still ongoing, our low and middle income earners are being hit the hardest. They cannot afford to buy food, never mind pay back debt. This debt and the worry of paying it back were preventable. The Government failed to decouple the link between gas prices and electricity prices and again refused to implement a price cap on electricity which would have prevented the rise in electricity bills. This is just not good enough.

Let us not forget that the electricity businesses are profiting from these vulnerable customers. Electricity credits are ultimately a subsidy to energy companies. They set the price and the Government subsidises households and businesses to pay that price. There is no mention of a windfall tax for the energy companies. There is no mention of price controls. Instead, the energy companies can pocket these subsidies in the form of increased prices and profiteering, with no long-term guarantee.

I have spoken to many business people in Dundalk over recent months and I have been flabbergasted at the cost increases they are facing. Not all businesses will be able to sustain these increases in costs and they will eventually have to be passed onto the end users.

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