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

Amendment No. 7 relates to section 6 of the Bill and the review by electricity suppliers for customers who did not receive payment under the scheme. It is necessary that we have this review in place because we are going to exclude a large number of people with vacant homes. We want to make sure that we are rightly excluding them and that we are dealing with exceptional cases in a fair way. While I thank the Senators for these suggested additions I am proposing to reject this amendment.

Proposed amendments for part 3 and part 4 seek to include a limit of 28 days for a supplier to consider a review request and then 28 days to respond in writing to review requests. While I recognise the merit of these amendments this would cause unintended consequences for electricity suppliers and consumers. Setting a limit of 28 days for a supplier review and response would prove difficult to implement and adhere to if issues arise. I understand that previously with the first scheme and the second scheme there was a large increase in call volume to energy supplier call centres in relation to the operation and roll-out of the credit. This caused problems such as increased wait times for customers and is not something that I wish to add to during the winter months. Permitting the review to be carried out "as soon as practicable" after receipt of the request provides the flexibility required for dealing with requests. It is proposed to reject these amendments.

The amendment seeks in part 5 (b) 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 rather than 60 days. This scheme will end on 31 July 2024. Suppliers will return unallocated funds to ESB Networks which will in turn forward these moneys back to my Department. It is preferable that these moneys are returned to the Exchequer as soon as practicable. There is no obvious reason or benefit as to why this should be extended and therefore I propose to reject this amendment.