Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am afraid I cannot accept proposed amendment No. 10, which relates to section 6 of the Bill and the review by electricity suppliers for customers who did not receive payment under the scheme. While I very much thank the Deputy for the suggested additions, I do not intend to accept them. The proposed amendments of Part 3 and Part 4 seek to include a limit of 28 days for a supplier to consider a review request, and 28 days to respond in writing to review requests. While I recognise the merit and the motivation of this amendment, it could cause unintended consequences for electricity suppliers and consumers. Setting a limit of 28 days for a supplier review and response could prove difficult to implement and to adhere to if issues arose. I understand that previously with scheme I and scheme II there was a large increase in call volumes to energy supply call centres regarding the operational roll-out of the credit. This caused problems such as an increased wait time for customers and it is not something to which we should add during the winter months. By permitting the review to be carried out as soon as practicable after receipt of the request, this provides the flexibility required for dealing with requests so it is proposed not to accept the amendments.

Regarding amendment No. 5(b), the Deputy seeks to provide an extended 60-day period for a review decision to be referred to the CRU. The Bill has provided 28 days for this referral. The scheme will end on 31 July 2023. Suppliers will return unallocated funds to ESBN which in turn will forward these moneys back to my Department. It is preferable that these moneys are returned to the Exchequer as soon as practicable. There is no obvious reason or benefit as to why they should be extended, therefore I propose to reject the amendment.

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