Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 25 January 2024
129. Deputy Paul McAuliffe asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the number of people who received the electricity cost emergency benefit scheme in Winter 2022/2023; and the number of people who availed of the first credit for this winter period 2023/2024. [3339/24]
View answerAs part of Budget 2024 the 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.
The Scheme allows for review by a customer’s electricity supplier, if contacted by a customer who has not received the payment. The Supplier will be able to review this and apply the payment if the customer is; a registered vulnerable customer, is eligible to be on the vulnerable customer register, or has a financial hardship meter. 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.
This follows the implementation of the Electricity Costs Emergency Benefit Schemes I and II, through which households received €800 (including VAT) between March 2022 and April 2023. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities reported that 99.36% of all eligible domestic electricity accounts received credit under Scheme I. The CRU reported that at the conclusion of Scheme II, 99.13% of the funds provided were credited to eligible customers.
