Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber and wish him and his family a happy Christmas. I hope he gets a chance to rest over the Christmas period.

Electricity is an essential service that every household and business in this country relies on every day. That is why decisions around electricity pricing, network investment and charges on consumers must be rooted not only in technical necessity but in common sense.In the coming year, electricity customers in Ireland will see increased costs of up to €1.75 per month, before VAT, introduced to fund critical investment in the upgrading of our national electricity grid. This investment, sanctioned by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, will see €13.8 billion spent by ESB Networks and EirGrid, with the potential for the figure to rise to €18.9 billion over the next five years if regulatory targets are met.

I have consistently supported investment in our electricity network. A resilient and modern grid is essential to meet the needs of our growing population and changing energy system. These upgrades will facilitate the building of 300,000 new homes by 2030, enable the connection of 1 million electric vehicles and support 680,000 heat pumps. That ambition is welcome and necessary.

However, ambition must also come with fairness. Domestic users will bear 55% of these costs, while businesses will carry 45%. Network tariffs already account for between 25% and 30% of the average electricity bill. At a time when households are under significant financial pressure, this cannot be ignored. While the extension of the VAT reduction on electricity, the widening of eligibility for the fuel allowance between September and April and targeted support for low income families are all positive steps, they do not address the basic issue of fairness. A standing charge is applied when no electricity is being supplied.

Across the country, thousands of households have experienced prolonged power outages over the past 12 months due to storms, network faults and planned maintenance. In some cases, families were without power for days. During these outages, people were not consuming electricity. They were not using appliances, heating homes or charging devices, yet they were still charged a daily standing charge. The standing charge is intended to cover the cost of maintaining access to the network. That is understandable, but what happens when access is not available? When homes are disconnected from the grid through no fault of the customer, continuing to apply the charges makes little sense and feels deeply unfair. If I have no electricity, I am not paying for units. Equally, I should not pay for standing charges for a service that I am not receiving.

The proposal is not about undermining investment or weakening the grid. In fact, it reinforces accountability and public trust in the system. Waiving the standing charge during verified power outages, whether due to storm damage or scheduled maintenance, would demonstrate that consumers are treated as partners in the energy transition, not simply as a revenue source. As we ask households to shoulder the higher costs of funding long-term resilience, we must also show that the system responds fairly when it fails them. Targeting resources at those on lower incomes remains essential, but fairness should apply to everyone. Waiving the standing charge during outages is a modest and practical reform that acknowledges real hardship, respects common sense and strengthens confidence in our energy system. Investment and fairness must go hand in hand. We can and should deliver both.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I extend my gratitude and many seasonal happy returns for Christmas to Senator Scahill, his family and everyone in the Chamber this morning, in particular the amazing officials in the Houses of the Oireachtas who, when we think it is great to have an amazing late night emergency debate, are the ones who ultimately have to respond very quickly.

Every five years, CRU approves the spending plans of EirGrid and ESB Networks, which are the companies charged with designing, operating, building and maintaining the electricity grid. These companies can then recover these allowed costs from their customers in accordance with tariffs that are approved and monitored by CRU. The Senator will have seen the announcement earlier this week by CRU of price review 6, which covers spending by the grid companies for 2026 to 2030. This investment will deliver the resilience our energy system needs to withstand extreme weather events. The Senator spoke extremely eloquently in this Chamber and elsewhere on the impact of Storm Éowyn and other storms, in particular those affecting his home community of Roscommon.

These regulated network charges are billed from the grid companies to electricity suppliers rather than end customers. Electricity customers pay their supplier a tariff to cover the cost to the supplier of buying electricity from a generator and paying network charges to the grid companies. As mentioned, how the supplier splits its prices between a per unit tariff and a standing charge is a commercial choice for the supplier. Customers are free to switch between suppliers and competition between suppliers allows customers to make significant savings, and we always encourage competition in the market.

Where outages do occur, ESB Networks operates a network repair guarantee. It aims to restore supply within four hours after any interruption. If a customer is without power for 24 hours after ESB Networks is notified of a fault, domestic customers can claim €65 and business customers can claim €130. Customers can claim an extra €35 for every additional 12 hours they are without power. ESB Networks is not able to offer this guarantee in exceptional cases such as storms or extensive disruption to electricity supplies. However, I am sure the Senator will agree with me that ESB Networks responds to storms in an exemplary way.

The electricity and gas retail markets in Ireland operate within the European Union regulatory regime, wherein those markets are commercial, liberalised and competitive. Operating within this framework of responsibility for the regulation of electricity and gas markets is solely a matter for the CRU. It ended its regulation of retail prices in the electricity market in 2011 and in the gas market in 2014. Price setting by suppliers, including standing chargers or waivers, is, therefore, a commercial and operational matter for the companies concerned. I will refer the Senator to the area of the network repair guarantee, which may be a more appropriate model that could be considered, enhanced or improved to deal with the sort of issues he has so clearly laid out in the Chamber.

Gareth Scahill (Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister of State. I will look into the network repair guarantee. This Commencement matter was timely because it is highly likely that before this House sits again, a lot of my constituents and other constituents across the west will have experienced some outages due to storms that may come. Considering that we did not deliver the guidelines for corridors in forestry this year, which led to a lot of power outages, I had to come to the House and ask for some measure to support constituents during outages. I and my constituents were not familiar with the fact that funding is available for people who experience outages, in particular extended outages over 12 hours or for days. It is something I will make people aware of over the coming weeks and months. I again thank the Minister of State for coming to the House this morning.

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Senator for raising this issue. There were outages in my constituency on Tuesday night, which affected residents in Kilternan, Stepaside and Carrickmines. People wondered what would happen afterwards and what recourse they had, in particular in respect of standing charges which are under price review 6. A lot needs to happen to our infrastructure in this country, in particular energy infrastructure.

The Senator is correct. The review on tree lines and everything else is key. I have no doubt that, in the coming weeks and months and probably before the House returns after the festive break, we will deal with constituents who have unfortunately faced outages due to weather events that happen at this time of year. The guarantee scheme offers an opportunity to such people. This is not a nice thing to have or a luxury for a lot of people; it is the means to be able to buy food at the end of the week. When people lose power, that affects their businesses and farms because there are additional costs in respect of batteries, torches or whatever else. I am very grateful to the Senator for raising this issue.

Malcolm Noonan (Green Party)
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Nollaig Shona daoibh go léir.