Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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154. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he plans to provide policy direction to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities to extend the moratorium on disconnections of gas and electricity past 1 December 2020 when the current moratorium is set to lapse; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35128/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Responsibility for the regulation of the gas and electricity markets, including statutory consumer protection functions , are  matters for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) which is the independent regulator established under the Electricity Regulation Act 1999, and which is solely accountable to a committee of the Oireachtas.  The electricity and gas retail markets in Ireland operate within a European Union regulatory regime wherein they are commercial, liberalised, and competitive. CRU moratoriums are matters for statutory independent regulation by the CRU and I have no role. The CRU recently publicly announced, following the implementation of level 5 restrictions, a moratorium on all disconnections of domestic energy customers from 24 October 2020 until 1 December 2020. Existing protections from winter disconnection for vulnerable and priority customers will apply from 1 November to 31 March 2020 in line with CRU’s Supplier Handbook and the  normal suspension of disconnection activities will mean no customer will be disconnected between 10 December 2020 and 12 January 2021.

The power of the Minister to give general policy directions  is circumscribed by the terms of the Act and the European Regulatory Regime. EU Member States must guarantee the independence of their respective energy regulators, which are expressly forbidden from taking direct instructions from a government, or any public body, when performing their regulatory  functions.

I have no plans for a Ministerial Policy Direction as suggested, noting that the circumscriptions of the above regulatory framework and of the EU regulatory regime indicate that such a policy direction in the area of disconnection moratorium may neither be appropriate nor possible.