Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy mentioned that he believed this might be the electricity credits Bill. He will be happy to hear that the President signed that legislation into law four days ago, so it is in operation. That involves the distribution of up to €1 billion of money to help people with their electricity bills through the winter. This Bill relates to putting a cap on the price electricity generation companies can charge for their electricity over a period in the past. This is to recapture excess profits that were made by the industry, take that money and return it to people in the form of electricity credits or some other form of distribution to help people with the high price of electricity. The amendment gives the industry one extra month to pay its bill. The reason we are making this change is that the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities consulted with the industry and its belief was that in practice, it would be difficult to collect the money in time and it may be subject to legal challenge if it did not allow an extra 30 days. As a result, we are giving the industry until the end of the year to file returns and then until the end of January to make the payments. In the meantime, the Government will be starting that distribution of €1 billion to electricity customers on 1 December. Any money that is returned from this Bill will help defray those costs but the distribution of money to people who need it to pay their electricity bills will not be delayed by this.

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