Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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62. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will outline the way that pay-as-you-go electricity customers can avail of the recent energy credit of €200.00; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [47181/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Electricity Costs (Domestic Electricity Accounts) Emergency Measures Act 2022 established a scheme for the making in 2022, of a once-off Electricity Costs Emergency Benefit Payment to each domestic electricity account, having regard to the exceptional rise in energy prices. The credit of €176.22 (excluding VAT) has been applied to all domestic electricity accounts through April, May and June, including prepay meters.

The scheme operated by the Distribution System Operator (ESB Networks) and electricity suppliers with oversight by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities used the single eligibility criterion of an electricity meter point registration number (MPRN), to ensure payments to each domestic electricity account, without any additional means testing.

The payment was applied to domestic electricity accounts i.e. those which are subject to distribution use of system charges at the rate for urban domestic customers (DG1) or the rate for rural domestic customers (DG2), as set out in section 1 of the Act. This included pay as you go / prepay customers.

The majority of prepayment meters accepted the credit in one go. However, I understand that there was a small population of older prepayment meters which, due to their age and inbuilt monetary limits, required the customer to redeem their credit through three separate transactions over the space of a few days.

In these cases, to redeem each stage of the credit, customers needed to buy a (minimum) €10 top up. When they did this they then received a new 40-digit code which credited their meter with the government electricity credit when entered. Once the credit was applied to the customer’s account/meter they accessed it by vending three times.Each supplier was allocated funding for each MPRN to which they were supplying electricity on 29 March 2022.

As such, customers who have not received the credit to their MPRN should contact the supplier they were with on this date in the first instance, as noted in the scheme’s Frequently Asked Questions which are available on gov.ie at: www.gov.ie/en/publication/4ae14-electricity-costs-emergency-benefit-scheme/.