asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he is aware of the charges being made by the ESB in respect of the connection of electricity supply to new houses; if he regards these charges as price increases; and if they have been authorised by the National Prices Commission.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - ESB Connection Charges.
3.
I understand that, apart from areas in which the rural electrification scheme has been completed, there has been no change in the system operated by the ESB under which a contribution is required for the connection of electricity supply to new houses where the revenue expected from the new consumer would be insufficient to remunerate the capital involved in the connection of supply. I also understand that the ESB have no standard charge for such connections, each case being examined independently by reference to the capital cost and the likely revenue.
In areas where the rural electrification scheme has been completed, charges may now arise for the connection of supply to new houses, as a Government subsidy is no longer available in such areas for this work.
The question of referring these ESB charges to the National Prices Commission does not, therefore, arise.
Does the Minister agree that there is discrimination as between the areas in which rural electrification has been completed and those areas in which it has not? In the event of a man building a house in one of the latter areas this charge is a substantial burden on him and in very many cases it reduces the Local Government grant to which he is entitled on his new house.
The Deputy is asking me to comment on matters that do not arise from the question and are not properly the concern of my Department. I would say, however, that a scheme like this involves the transfer of wealth from one sector of the economy to another. If a man has electricity going in three miles to his house and is not chargeable then, in the end, someone else pays. The public pay. There is no automatic creation of the money required to do this kind of thing. A great deal of public money has been spent on rural electrification and the Deputy should recognise that what he is now asking for is, in fact, a very significant subsidy in continuation of the very major subsidies that have already been paid.
The Minister may be under a misconception here. I am referring to a new house not three miles distant from any source of supply to houses adjacent where substantial charges are being made. Could the Minister state, first of all, how long this charge applies, whether it has been of a set standard for the whole period and on what basis is it computed? As a result of the queries I come across I cannot figure out how a charge for a particular house can be compared with a charge for another house.
The aspects to which the Deputy is referring would seem to be the responsibility of the Minister of another Department.
Not really.
I have made it clear that there is no price increase in fact. In any meaningful sense of the term, this is not a price and the Deputy is aware that in no instance is money charged for connection which shows a profit or does anything more than pay the cost.
When connections were made some years ago the effect was so small we did not even bother about it. Indeed, we were not even told about it. It did not seem to affect people very much, but the charges now——
A question, please, Deputy.
——are running into hundreds of pounds in some cases. There has been a change and the change is very detrimental to rural dwellers.
With respect to the Deputy, I have tried to say as much as I could, but this is not the responsibility of the Department of Industry and Commerce. The Deputy will have to ask the Minister for Transport and Power about it.