Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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119. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if electricity credits provided for in Budget 2023 will be decoupled from MPRNs in the case where multiple individual domiciles share the same MPRN; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54829/22]

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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125. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if provisions to allocate the energy credit have been made to persons living in single units sharing the one MPRN code; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54939/22]

Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance)
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135. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the measures that his Department has taken to ensure that the €200 electricity credit is received by groups who do not have an MPRN number, including persons on Traveller halting sites; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55319/22]

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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136. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the way in which the electricity credit, as part of the Government’s cost-of-living measures, can be applied for tenants who purchase their prepaid meter top-up cards directly from their landlord. [55362/22]

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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137. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the way in which the electricity credits will apply to households on coin-operated meters; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [55401/22]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 119, 125 and 135 to 137, inclusive, together.

Government is acutely aware of the impact that the recent increases in global energy prices is having on households. This is why a €2.4 billion package of supports was implemented during 2022, and a package of once off measures worth €2.5 billion in Budget 2023, including a new Electricity Cost Emergency Benefit Scheme through which €550.47 (exclusive of VAT) will be credited to each domestic electricity account in three payments of €183.49 (exclusive of VAT) in each of the following billing periods - November/December 2022, January/February 2023 and March/April 2023. The estimated cost of this scheme is €1.211 billion.

The payment will be applied to domestic electricity accounts, including those with Pay As You Go meters, 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). The scheme uses the single identifier of the Meter Point Registration Number (MPRN) to ensure it can be administered automatically and without an application/approval process. This mechanism allowed payments to be made automatically to 2,138,939 domestic electricity accounts, over 99.36% of eligible accounts, under the first scheme which operated between April and June of this year.

My Department is working with the City & County Management Association (CCMA) to ensure the benefit of this scheme, of the scheme implemented earlier this year, reaches Traveller families who use Local Authority Traveller accommodation.

While the majority of residential tenants will hold their own domestic electricity accounts, and therefore receive the credit directly, others could have tenancy agreements where tenants pay their actual share of each bill and, in those cases, will benefit from the payment because the amount of the bill will be reduced by the amount of the payment. A small proportion could have other arrangements in place whereby electricity costs are part of the rental cost. Where tenants have a dispute relating to tenancies including any terms relating to electricity payments, these can be referred to the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) for dispute resolution. As there is not data set identifying this cohort, increasing awareness of entitlements of existing social protection measures, which include provision for help with household bills, is an important way of supporting people in this situation.

Along with the Electricity Cost Emergency Benefit Scheme Budget 2023 also introduced measures including:

- €400 lump sum payment to Fuel Allowance recipients

- €200 lump sum payment for pensioners and people with a disability getting the Living Alone Increase

- €500 cost of living lump sum payment to all families getting Working Family Payment

- double payment of Child Benefit to support all families with children

- €500 cost of living payment for people receiving Carer's Support Grant will be paid in November

- €500 lump sum cost of living disability support grant will be paid to all people receiving a long term disability payment

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), which has oversight responsibility for the scheme, has a dedicated email address for Deputies to contact them oireachtas@cru.ie for timely replies.