Paul Lawless (Mayo, Aontú)
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223. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if his Department has received complaints or reports regarding the treatment of vulnerable ESB customers in arrears. [51965/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Responsibility for the regulation of the electricity sector is a matter for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) which is an independent regulator, accountable to a committee of the Oireachtas and not the Minister. The CRU was assigned responsibility for the regulation of the Irish electricity sector following the enactment of the Electricity Regulation Act, 1999 and subsequent legislation. The CRU is responsible for oversight of the system operators, such as ESB Networks. Issues regarding the regulation and direct oversight of the System Operators associated with their obligations are a matter for the CRU. The CRU have contact details in place for Deputies, of which they are aware, who issue to raise matters with them and in this instance this query should be directed to the CRU email oireachtas@cru.ie

CRU has a process for members of the public to refer complaints to them so that complaints are addressed and that they are legally binding between a consumer and their energy provider or network operator.

The first part of the process is for the consumer to deal with their energy provider. See the link for more details Complain to the CRU | CRU.ie www.cru.ie/make-a-complaint/complain-to-the-cru/.

The rationale for this is that as the regulator CRU in the first are investigating the service providers complaint handling process and when they approach the service provider, they are looking for a formal complaint as a starting point for their investigation.