Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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10. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the estimated full-year cost of providing a €100 electricity credit to each principal private residence; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23529/23]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Budget 2023 included an Electricity Cost Emergency Benefit Scheme through which €550.47 (exclusive of VAT) was credited to each domestic electricity account in three payments of €183.49 (exclusive of VAT). Payments were made to domestic electricity accounts in the November/December, January/February and March/April billing cycles at an estimated cost of €1.211 billion based on an estimate of 2.2 million MPRN.

The payments apply 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. The credit was applied automatically to all domestic electricity accounts which were held with suppliers on 27 October 2022, 20 December 2022 and 27 February 2023, as identified by the MPRN.

Based on the previous estimate of 2.2 million MPRN, the cost of providing a net €100 credit (€91.25 credit plus VAT at 9%)  to each MPRN would be €220m in total to the exchequer. This takes account of the direct cost to the exchequer plus VAT foregone.