Results 221-240 of 731 for speaker:Naoise Ó Muirí
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: Apologies have been received from Deputy Heneghan and Senator O'Donovan. The purpose of today's meeting is to engage with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, to discuss its work in its role as Ireland's independent energy and water regulator. The witnesses from the CRU are: Mr. Jim Gannon, chairperson and commissioner; Dr. Tanya Harrington, commissioner; Mr. Fergal Mulligan,...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: I thank Mr. Gannon. I now invite members in the order in which they have indicated to engage with the witnesses. Each member has six minutes for the initial round. I call Teachta Dála Daly.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: Very quickly, Deputy.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: I will let Deputy Daly back in. He will get time in a second round.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: What the Deputy is saying is that a company regulated by the CRU is effectively blaming it for a much larger price increase, which cannot be substantiated. Has the CRU any comment on that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: Sorry, Deputy.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: I will let the Deputy back in like everybody else.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: I have to stop the Senator. I will let her back in, but I have to manage the time.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: That is fine. I will let you back in.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: Sorry, Senator Higgins, I will have to take the time off at the end.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: Okay. I have a couple of questions. The witnesses mentioned large energy users coming with generating capacity to meet additional demand, but I am not hearing that is renewable. Is the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, mandating that as covered within its policy or framework?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: Can the CRU just mandate it? "Maximise" sounds like there is a lot of wiggle room.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: Now is the time to do that. We have climate targets to meet.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: Regarding Uisce Éireann, it was looking for an 18% increase and ended up with a 10% increase in charges. Is that a five year window? Have we any sense from Uisce Éireann whether we may be looking at more requests for increases in the future? Again, Uisce Éireann does not have a domestic customer base. Effectively, it has a commercial base. The figure of 10% is quite a...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: Do you have any sense of what they are?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: Going back to large energy users, the CRU sees the energy networks. There is a lot of talk about prioritisation of users at the moment, which is fair enough. Are we at a capacity issue yet? Are we saying there is a capacity issue yet, or that it is imminent, and we will be forced into that prioritisation issue? What is the CRUs view on that?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: But you are not saying the system is at capacity. Prioritisation is needed when we are coming close to that point.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy: Engagement with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (24 Sep 2025)
Naoise Ó Muirí: Regarding Irish energy prices versus European prices, there is research that shows we are up at the top of league tables of European prices. The CRU only has control of the elements it controls itself. However, what is the witnesses' assessment of why that is? Is there an issue with the pan-European market on the wholesale side, if we are still up at the top consistently? It knocks on to...