Fergus O'Dowd (Louth, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In my experience - believe it or not, I have been in public life for almost 40 years - I have never met a customer of the ESB who was not looked after through an arrangement with the company. The ESB was always able to meet people’s needs by helping them go to the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS. I appreciate and understand people get into debt. The MABS is a fantastic agency which helps people in the first instance. I have never known of a person who was cut off. Sometimes the ESB will give a person a special card to enable him or her to prepay. It might contain a portion of the bill the person owes, plus current electricity usage. If people can pay, they should. That is the point.

Senator Trevor Ó Clochartaigh referred to water poverty. If after dealing with housing and other costs, the water charge is greater than 3% of net income, one is deemed to be in what is termed water poverty. This is a significant issue that must be addressed and I assure the House it will be. The protocols will need to be in place. The regulator will be responsible for overseeing the complaints procedure, the billing and payment methods and the provision of information and assistance for customers. There is no ogre. I profoundly disagree with the description of Irish Water by other speakers. Oireachtas committees have real power in that they may question outside bodies. I suggest this could be done in January in order to clarify issues to the satisfaction of Members. I am confident that the Government's decision on the free allowance and the arrangements for those in genuine difficulty will deal with these concerns.