Mark Daly (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There are no consequences with supply if one does not pay water charges, other than a surcharge on one’s bill. I am sure someone in the ESB has done a little rule on this. Can one imagine if there were no consequences for not paying an electricity bill? There was a time, I accept, one could ratchet it up but it would never be cut off for a couple of years. In the same regard, if electricity supply was not cut off, how would the ESB fare if the majority of its customers did not pay?

How big would the bad debt provision be? There are unanswered questions also in regard to landlords and tenants and the fact that the bill for the property seems to be the responsibility of the landlord, which is a situation the ESB has learned from.

We were told Bord Gáis was the repository of all wisdom and the oracle of all knowledge when it came to how to run a service. Being the geniuses they are in Bord Gáis, have they a policy of not turning off the gas of customers who do not pay or of only adding a charge of €60 per annum to a bill for non-payment? Would anybody believe Bord Gáis would have a small bad debt provision? Does anybody believe that neither Bord Gáis nor the ESB would have gone broke at this stage? Of course they would have gone broke, because, as no doubt Senator Barrett would point to first year economic students, if there are no consequences for an action, it is likely people who might get advantage from the action will carry take that action.

If a report has been carried out on this, I would like to see it. What are the consequences of section 4 when we couple it with the fact that nobody's supply will be cut off? Has anybody followed the Government's policy and carried out a regulatory impact assessment? I would be amazed, but pleasantly surprised, if someone can produce such an assessment.