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

Amendment No. 7 relates to section 6 of the Bill and a review by electricity suppliers for customers who did not receive payment under the scheme. I thank the Deputy for the amendment, which I propose to reject. Proposed amendments for Parts 3 and 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. I recognise the merit of this amendment but it could cause unintended consequences for electricity suppliers and consumers by setting a limit of 28 days for a supplier review. This could prove difficult to implement and adhere to if issues arose. I understand that with previous schemes, there was a large increase in call volumes to energy supplier call centres in respect of the operation and roll-out of the credit, which caused problems such as increased waiting times for customers. That is not something to which I wish to add during the winter months. Permitting the review to be carried out "as soon as practicable", which is what the legislation states, after receipt of the request provides the flexibility required for dealing with requests. It is proposed to reject the amendments.

Under section 6(5)(b) proposed by the amendment, 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 August 2025. Suppliers will return unallocated funds to ESB Networks, which will, in turn, forward the moneys back to my Department and then the Exchequer. It is preferable that these moneys are returned to the Exchequer as soon as practicable.

As a Deputy and a Minister of State, I have been contacted by members of the public about electricity credits. I did not, however, receive any complaints from members of the public who were unable to access their credits because their window to appeal timed out. In all the cases I dealt with, the individual customers managed to get their credits. Out of 2 million customers in Ireland, fewer than 100 ended up being referred to the CRU under appeal. The vast majority of people who contacted their suppliers were sent their electricity credits as a result. I thank the Deputy for submitting this amendment.

See this speech in context