Willie O'Dea (Limerick City, Fianna Fail)
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185. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if his attention has been drawn to the energy regulator stating that it has no function in dealing with former customers of a company (details supplied) which left the Irish energy market earlier this year, leaving many pre-paid customers, who were in credit, owed significant sums of money by the company; the steps that he proposes to take to resolve this issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52921/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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The Supplier of Last Resort (SoLR) process is managed by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) as part of its responsibility for the regulation of the retail gas and electricity markets as assigned under the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 and subsequent legislation.

The primary statutory objective of this process is to protect customers and to prevent any further potential impact on customers in the market place in the event that an electricity or gas supplier exits the market and ensure that customers’ electricity or gas supply is not interrupted. Under the process, all customers of exiting suppliers are transferred to the standard tariff of the Supplier of Last Resort for electricity (Electric Ireland) or gas (BGE).

I understand that the duration of the SoLR term is determined based on a number of factors including: the volume of customers transferring; the requirement of SoLR to purchase additional energy in the short-term on the wholesale market; and the allowance of adequate time to facilitate the registering of customers and issuing of bills.

Any credit or debit that was built up between a customer and a supplier will not be passed on to the SoLR as unfortunately, the SoLR does not have access to the customer’s old supplier’s billing system and is therefore unable to quantify this.

These debits or credits are a matter between the customer and the exiting supplier, and the exiting supplier may provide a refund. Affected customers can contact the CRU customer care team on customercare@cru.ie or 1800 404 404.

The CRU is accountable directly to the Oireachtas. Furthermore, the CRU has a dedicated email address where Oireachtas members can contact them directly oireachtas@cru.ie.