Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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137. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment whether the legislation providing for the Government electricity credit can be amended so that persons who have been refused the benefit of the scheme because a property into which they recently moved was unoccupied between July 2022 and June 2023 can be covered; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3646/24]

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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138. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment further to Parliamentary Question No. 124 of 17 January 2024, to clarify whether persons excluded from the credit due to low energy usage where they have been occupying the property and are not a vulnerable customer/entitled to be a vulnerable customer or have a financial meter, will be awarded the credit; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3701/24]

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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147. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment if he will make an urgent alteration to the legislation of the Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2023 to ensure customers who purchased properties that were vacant during the monitoring period, are now eligible to avail of this support (details supplied). [3765/24]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 136, 137, 138 and 147 together.

As part of Budget 2024 Government approved a new tranche of Electricity Credits which over 2.2 million households will benefit from -- worth €450 in total per household.

Three payments of €150 (including VAT) are being made between December 2023 and April 2024.

The payments are being 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).

Under Scheme III, usage levels are assessed to ensure that payments are withheld in relation to low usage electricity accounts identified by the distribution system operator, to prevent the payment from being applied to vacant houses.

ESB Networks identified accounts which consumed less than 150 kilowatt hours of electricity per quarter for four consecutive quarters between 1 July 2022 and 30 June 2023. Domestic electricity accounts flagged as low usage accounts, will not be allocated a payment for that payment period. The payment will not be withheld for accounts with a financial hardship meter, accounts held by registered as a vulnerable customer or accounts which have low usage due to the exporting of energy to the grid through microgeneration.

The Scheme allows for review by a customer’s electricity supplier, if contacted by a customer who has not received the payment. The customer can seek further review by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, which has oversight of the Scheme, following the decision of the electricity supplier. I would encourage any customer who thinks that they should have received the credit to contact their supplier at the first instance, and then the CRU if they have still not received the credit.