Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

This is a technical amendment to section 9(1F) of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999. Section 9 of the Act provides for the functions of the CER, and subsection (1F) provides that it shall be a function of the CER to ensure there is a high standard of protection for all final customers, including in their dealings with energy undertakings. The definition of "final customers" under section 2 of the 1999 Act refers only to those involved with electricity. This gives rise to an unintended inconsistency in that section 9(1F), as stated, appears to apply only to final customers of electricity and does not include final customers of natural gas. Therefore, it is intended to insert a new section 9(1FA) to clarify that the term "final customers" is inclusive of final customers with respect to natural gas.