Dáil Éireann debate -
Friday, 7 Feb 2014

Vol. 829 No. 4

Energy Regulation (Code of Practice) Bill 2013: Second Stage [Private Members]

Deputy Michael Moynihan

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

I am bringing forward this Bill to protect electricity consumers who have fallen into difficulty in the payment of their bills. It will put a revised version of the current non-binding Commission for Energy Regulation guidelines on a statutory footing. These guidelines would ensure the consumer was given a reasonable opportunity to engage with his or her energy supplier and devise a payment plan with it. Our proposals would ensure suppliers assisted customers in genuine financial difficulty in making payment plans and, where appropriate, engaged with a money adviser acting on behalf of the customer. This would have to include offering the consumer a prepayment meter or budget controller, if this was possible.

Since the onset of the financial crisis in Ireland in 2008, the number of people who have been disconnected from their energy supplier has risen dramatically. The total number of electricity disconnections for 2011 was 17,794, which represents approximately 0.8% of all electricity customers. The total number of disconnections for 2012 decreased slightly to 17,439. In the first two quarters of 2013, 5,601 customers were disconnected from their energy supply. These numbers show that although the number of disconnections has eased in recent months, it is still high.

The Commission for Energy Regulation, CER, has to be complimented on its proactive approach to the problem of disconnections. It has set out a comprehensive guide for energy suppliers outlining their responsibilities in this area. Its supplier handbook sets out minimum service requirements, to which suppliers must adhere. It comprises individual codes of practice that cover all key areas of customer-supplier interaction, including billing, disconnections, marketing, vulnerable customers and pay-as-you-go meters. These rules are correctly in place to ensure that, in line with Commission for Energy Regulation's legislative duties, customers enjoy a high standard of protection in their dealings with licensed suppliers. In accordance with the code of practice on disconnections, as detailed in section 6.7 of the supplier handbook, suppliers must offer customers assistance in managing their bills and treat disconnection as a last resort.

The guidelines are good policy and the Commission for Energy Regulation has been active in seeking compliance. It has regularly conducted an audit of suppliers' adherence with these requirements. The audits look at suppliers' processes for the disconnection of domestic customers. The most recent audit in November 2013 found the following cases of non-conformance: a supplier had failed to send written details of newly agreed payment plans to customers; and a supplier had invoiced customers for 100% of the disconnection fee and subsequently reimbursed 50% of the charge having stated it would only charge 50% of the fee.

The fundamental issue is the reason the guidelines should be put on a statutory basis. In this legislation I am proposing to put the Commission for Energy Regulation guidelines on a statutory basis to ensure the highest level of protection would be afforded to those who have fallen on difficult times and are unable to pay their energy bill as it accrues. Non-statutory guidelines which rely on soft law are not as effective as statutory legislation. That much is obvious. The Bill would introduce a code of conduct for energy suppliers on a statutory footing, ensuring full compliance with the Commission for Energy Regulation guidelines. It would ensure a higher compliance rate with the commission's guidelines and give the commission more power to act in enforcing the code of practice necessary to protect those at risk of disconnection. Our proposals would guarantee that disconnection of a customer owing to non-payment would only be carried out as a last resort. Suppliers would be required by primary legislation to provide in their code that they conduct their business in such a manner that would minimise the number of customers disconnected. Suppliers would have to work with the relevant State agencies or State-sponsored bodies or recognised charities to assist household customers in arrears with a payment plan in the event that difficulties were experienced. This provision would help to keep customers connected at a time when they were finding it difficult to pay their bills.

The social impact of being cut off from an energy supply is drastic. Energy is vital in 21st century life. A study in Australia entitled, Cut Off III: The Social Impact of Utility Disconnection, commissioned by the Public Interest Advocacy Centre’s Energy and Water Consumers’ Advocacy Program, showed the experience of people in New South Wales who had been disconnected from their electricity, water or gas supply and the impact disconnection had had on their daily lives. The main finding was that difficult financial circumstances continued to be the main factor leading to disconnection. The findings suggest disconnection is often the result of long-term financial stress, rather than a one-off event, although unforeseen circumstances such as unusually high utility bills or loss of employment can also impede the payment of bills.

What is interesting about the Australian report is how one in three or 31% of respondents reported having no contact with their utility company prior to disconnection, either at their or the utility company’s instigation. Importantly, respondents who did have contact with retailers were mainly offered a payment plan or an extension of their bill.

This shows the importance of communication between the energy supplier and the consumer. It appears that where contact is made, disconnection is far less likely as a solution to payments can be found.

The creation of payment plans through communication between both sides is a positive development. However, payment plans must not be considered unaffordable by the consumer. In the Australian research, more than half of those respondents who were offered payment plans thought they were unaffordable and, indeed, were not clearly understood by some. This clearly has implications for the Irish market. Plans put forward by energy suppliers must not be unrealistic. Embarrassment continues to be the most common barrier to people seeking assistance, followed by a lack of information and knowledge when payments mount up.

In Australia, a large majority of consumers - 79% - were aware they could ask for assistance and a vast majority knew who to contact for assistance but we do not have any figures in Ireland. It is important to ensure people are aware of the options open to them when they get into difficulty in paying their energy bills.

There is no question but that the social impact of disconnection from the energy supply is drastic and dramatic. Disconnection is utterly disruptive to households, often with those households having to resort to uncomfortable and upsetting actions, including using candles or lanterns, having cold showers or baths and buying takeaway or prepared food. A range of impacts also result from disconnection, most commonly anxiety and emotional disorders, loss of food and an inability to wash. These impacts are compounded the longer the disconnection. This situation should be avoided at all costs.

This Bill provides a way forward to ensure that any disconnection only occurs when all other options are exhausted. It protects electricity consumers who have fallen into difficulty in the payment of their bills and it will strengthen the Commission for Energy Regulation's ability to ensure compliance from energy suppliers when dealing with customers. It will also ensure the customer is given a reasonable opportunity to engage with the energy supplier and devise a payment plan with him or her.

Given the rise in disconnections over the past three years and the social impact those disconnections have, I hope the Government and the Minister see some worth in this legislation.

Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (Deputy Pat Rabbitte)

I welcome the opportunity to discuss Deputy Moynihan's Bill. Although the Government will be unable to accept it for reasons I will explain, I would like to thank him for bringing it forward because it provides us with an opportunity to discuss what is one of the more important issues facing the energy industry at this time, namely, the disconnection of vulnerable customers. It is also an issue which has caused me to be in regular contact with the industry, the regulator, civil society groups and the Department of Social Protection.

Disconnections benefit nobody. They add extra costs to the entire system, they use up the time and resources of ESB and Bord Gáis Networks and they leave the customer without electricity or gas until he or she is reconnected. This is something we must do everything in our power to minimise.

The Electricity Regulation Act, which governs the operation of the energy market in Ireland, assigns responsibility for the regulation of electricity and gas to the Commission for Energy Regulation. This Act requires the commission to ensure there are adequate safeguards in place to protect consumers' interests. The commission does this by requiring every energy supplier to have a code of practice in place and the objective of each code of practice is to protect consumers and make disconnections a last resort.

If there was a regularity failure here or if the Commission for Energy Regulation was failing to live up to its duties, then I would support Deputy Moynihan's Bill. Unfortunately, I do not believe the enactment of the Bill would prevent one single customer from being disconnected since the code of practice the Deputy envisages is already in place and operating. Despite this, there is always more that we can do to reduce disconnections and I will take this opportunity to outline what the regulator, the industry and my Department are doing to further reduce disconnections.

I would like to put Deputy Moynihan's mind at ease by clarifying what exactly the regulator already does to protect customers and minimise disconnections, although in his opening speech, he paid tribute to the work of the regulator. Every energy supplier, which operates in the Irish energy market, is required to have a code of practice in place. This code of practice must comply with the mandatory standards set out by the regulator in the supplier handbook. A supplier's code of practice must set out clearly how it will deal with its customers and all of the procedures and practices it will follow, including the procedures that apply to any disconnections. These codes of practice are published and are available on the websites of each energy supplier.

Before a supplier can even consider disconnecting a customer, it must agree a payment arrangement which suits the customer's circumstances while avoiding a situation where the debt becomes worse. This can include the installation of a pay-as-you-go meter. Energy suppliers must also refer an at-risk customers for guidance to his or her local Money Advice and Budgeting Service office, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul or a local community welfare officer to find out about any exceptional circumstances, such as what special needs might apply. Only after these measures fail and after at least another four separate attempts to contact the customer have been made without result can a supplier then consider applying for a disconnection.

In addition, all suppliers are obliged to establish and keep updated a register of vulnerable customers. Customers who fall into this category cannot be disconnected during the winter months from 1 November to 31 March. The regulator regularly monitors energy suppliers to ensure they are complying with these standards and only last November, the regulator undertook random audits of suppliers, including site visits. During these audits, suppliers were required to demonstrate on their internal systems how specific customers who were disconnected between 1 November 2012 and 31 March 2013 were treated. The results of the audit, which were published on the Commission for Energy Regulation's website, found that most suppliers go considerably beyond the minimum procedures stipulated in the code of practice.

This Bill calls for the creation of a fine of €3,000 which would be applied to any supplier which violates the code of practice. Currently, a failure by a supplier to meet its obligations, including those specified in its code of practice, can result in the regulator making an application to the High Court for a compliance order. If an energy supplier ignored this, it would be in breach of a High Court order and would be putting its licence to operate in the market place at risk. That is a penalty way beyond that proposed by Deputy Moynihan. These suppliers would not mind paying €3,000 but to lose their licences to operate in the market place would not be something they could contemplate. I do not believe any supplier would be prepared to countenance that.

Notwithstanding the significant powers the regulator already has to achieve supplier compliance, my Department is currently developing legislative proposals to further strengthen the regulator's regulatory powers. The proposals will give the regulator powers to directly impose fines on all licensed entities for prescribed contraventions where these are deemed to warrant financial sanctions. Subject to the advice of the Attorney General on this matter, my objective is to bring proposals to Government shortly.

While I believe suppliers have been sensitive to the needs of customers, the current economic situation means that, even with the best will in the world, some customers are struggling with their energy bills. To give these customers a way to manage their bills, prepay electricity and gas meters known as pay-as-you-go meters were introduced into the Irish market in 2011. These meters are available free of charge to customers facing financial hardship and since they have been made available more than 50,000 electricity meters and 80,000 gas meters have been distributed to customers.

I am convinced that this single measure has done more than anything else to reduce the number of disconnections. When smart meters are rolled out to everyone in the country, every meter will be potentially capable of acting as a "pay as you go" meter, but in the meantime we must continue to target the roll-out of such meters at those most at risk.

In spite of the good work undertaken to date, I am still concerned that the number of electricity and gas connections is too high. To address this, I met the CEOs of all the energy suppliers shortly before Christmas, along with the network companies and the regulator. I urged this group to think about what new and innovative measures we could further implement to reduce the number of people facing disconnections. This has led to the formation of a task force on disconnections, led by the regulator, that is meeting weekly to examine what urgent measures we can collectively undertake to help support customers having difficulty with their bills. I will meet the CEOs again this month, when I expect to be presented with a number of measures that can be implemented quickly to reduce disconnections.

As we consider the issue of disconnections, we should not lose sight of the wider issue of energy affordability. While avoiding disconnections is certainly a laudable goal, it means little if a customer on a "pay as you go" meter is unable to afford to feed the meter to pay for electricity and gas, and is thus forced to self disconnect. Government policy on energy affordability is founded on the fundamental principle that everybody should be able to afford to adequately light and heat their homes. Achieving this requires an integrated approach, which involves extensive co-operation across the Government, industry and the voluntary sector. The Government's energy affordability strategy, known as Warmer Homes, was developed by an interdepartmental agency group on affordable energy, and was formed to ensure that we developed the necessary holistic approach to reduce energy poverty. This strategy identified three key interlinking factors which determine whether a person falls into energy poverty. These factors are energy costs, thermal efficiency and incomes. Our dependence upon imported fossil fuels limits our ability to control energy costs, except through the promotion and development of real and active competition in the energy market. Only last week, Energia entered the domestic electricity and gas market, and I understand the regulator hopes to be in a position to end price regulation in the domestic gas market this April. Customers now have a range of choices and can shop around to seek a deal that best suits their needs and circumstances.

The Government will continue to support incomes by ensuring that those on low incomes are supported and treated with dignity through the household benefits package, and specifically through measures such as the electricity and gas allowance and the fuel allowance. However, the most meaningful measure we can take is to continue to improve the thermal efficiency of people's homes, and thus insulate them from the effects of rising energy costs. To this end, I have secured more than €57 million to fund the Better Energy programme this year. This will lead to a further 12,000 low-income homes receiving an energy efficiency upgrade this year. Around one sixth of all homes in Ireland have received some form of energy efficiency upgrade to date. In addition to making homes more comfortable, healthier and more cost effective to run, the Better Energy programme has supported an average of 3,500 jobs in the construction sector over the past three years. This year, the programme will also assist in an energy saving of over 600 GWh, which is a significant contribution towards reaching our 2020 energy efficiency targets.

This Government shares the concerns expressed today by Deputy Moynihan. However, the solution cannot be to require the regulator to create codes of practice that are already in place and working. We must be more ambitious. We need to keep developing workable solutions. I fully expect the task force on disconnections to present me with a range of measures within weeks that we can adopt to ease the burden faced by families struggling to meet their energy bills. In the long term, we are going to move to smart meters, each of which can act as a "pay as you go" meter. We will continue to ensure that people can upgrade their homes to the highest possible energy efficiency standards. Until then, we will continue to ensure that customers in financial hardship get every support possible to help them manage their energy bills. I urge consumers having difficulties with their bills to talk to energy suppliers, to talk to organisations that can help, such as the Money Advice and Budgeting Service, and to talk to organisations like the Society of St. Vincent de Paul.

These are tough days for everybody in the economy, but for those experiencing energy poverty, times are exceptionally tough. That is why I have concentrated so much time on this issue. As the economy hopefully improves and some thousands of people find jobs again, we can all look forward to a better future.

Deputy Michael Colreavy

I welcome Deputy Moynihan's Bill. It is important that there is a clear and proper code of practice for electricity and gas suppliers in dealing with their customers. I am disappointed that the Government will oppose this proposed legislation. In a time of declining incomes and increasing charges, more and more people will be left without electricity or gas. It is a serious and growing problem. The disconnection of electricity and gas customers can be a frightening occurrence for the consumer. Not alone is there the distress of the possibility of having to go without light or heat, there is also the confusion that surrounds the disconnection process. Over 14,000 homes were disconnected from electricity supply in 2012 and over 7,000 homes were disconnected from gas supply. The number of gas disconnections has increased by 82%. This is a startling number. It is a serious problem when so many families are unable to provide heat and light in their homes.

At the moment, only customers in significant arrears can avail of the prepay metering system. Customers who are not in arrears must use private companies to install prepay meters on which they pay a charge, resulting in higher energy costs for those customers. Prepay meters must become available to all customers should they wish to use them. This would help families to manage better their electricity and gas bills and would avoid so many households falling into debt, resulting in disconnections. Bill payers with a poor credit rating have routinely been put on to prepayment meters by energy suppliers and the cost per unit through such meters has historically been higher than if paid for by other means. Fuel poverty is an issue that must be taken seriously by this Government and the number of disconnections must be significantly reduced.

Despite enduring relatively mild winters, Ireland and England have the highest rates of seasonal mortality in northern Europe, and it has been shown that such mortality rates result, in no small part, from the inadequately protected, thermally inefficient housing stocks in these countries. There are also strong associations between inadequately heated homes and increased rates of morbidity; higher incidences of various cardiovascular and respiratory diseases have been associated with chronic cold exposure from within the home through living in fuel-poor conditions. The problem of fuel poverty occurs, therefore, when a household does not have the adequate financial resources to meet these winter home-heating costs, and because the dwelling's heating system and insulation levels prove to be inadequate for achieving affordable household warmth.

Some households need more fuel than others because their circumstances dictate that their homes must be heated for longer intervals or because they require higher temperatures. I refer, for example, to households in which the elderly or very young children are living. Heating costs may be disproportionately high in some households, such as single-adult households, because they have to be met by one person. Furthermore, it is known from generalised poverty and deprivation research that some households, such as single-parent households, face severe financial hardship. Each of these factors has an effect on the probability of certain household groups enduring fuel poverty.

The linear relationship between educational attainment and the incidence of fuel poverty is both strong and negative. The highest level of fuel poverty is found in groups with low levels of educational attainment. The incidence of fuel poverty among those who left the education system during primary school is 25.6%. The rate is 21.9% among those who left secondary school before sitting the leaving certificate or its technical equivalent. The 55,000 households that are headed by someone who did not sit the final secondary school examination comprise the largest cohort suffering fuel poverty in absolute terms. Conversely, those with third level education have very low levels of fuel poverty. Just 3.6% of the households headed by someone with a primary or postgraduate degree suffer fuel poverty. Who would have thought there would be such a link between educational attainment and fuel poverty? The linear relationship that exists in this regard is startling.

Research shows a further inequality in the propensity or ability of those on different incomes to take advantage of supplier switching to avoid higher tariffs. People on low incomes who live in remote rural areas that are not connected to the gas grid can fall outside of effective market competition, which means they are more likely to be subject to higher and fluctuating costs of oil, propane and biomass. The consequences of this relate not only to the direct impact of insufficient warmth on physical and mental health and well-being, but also to the ability to afford other essentials within the available total household budget. I am speaking about so-called "heat or eat" situations, in which households are forced to choose between spending money on energy bills or on food bills.

It is particularly significant that fuel poverty does not have equal consequences across different social and demographic groups. It is often linked to the excess winter deaths phenomenon, whereby a peak of deaths occurs in cold weather every year. Most of these deaths occur in older people, who may require more home heating than others for physiological reasons. As they are likely to spend more time at home than working people, affordability problems can have a greater impact on them. The recurrence of these excess deaths, year after year, in Ireland and some other countries has been referred to as a national scandal by charities involved in this area. The connotation is that these people's deaths, and therefore their lives, matter less than the deaths of those who are not so old.

I would like to conclude by referring to the deposit that suppliers have to pay to energy companies. I have spoken to a hotel proprietor who was billed for a deposit by an energy company he had been dealing with for several years. He has advised me that he never fell behind with his account during that time. He was a good and loyal customer. He was sent a bill for thousands of euro as some sort of security deposit. He felt, as an existing customer, that this was unfair and he decided to change his energy supplier. He was unable to do so, however, because the deposit for which he had been invoiced was shown as arrears against him. In effect, he was a hostage of the supplier that invoiced him for the security deposit. When he refused to make this payment, the company sent people with pliers to his hotel. As they were about to disconnect, he had to take money out of the bank to pay this ransom. I would not call it a deposit. When I contacted the Commission for Energy Regulation, I was advised that the company was within its legal rights to act as it did. If that is the law, it is seriously flawed. I would have proposed an amendment to Deputy Moynihan's Bill to make a change in this regard if the Government had allowed the Bill to advance to Committee Stage. When the Minister meets the CEOs, perhaps he will raise this scandalous issue with them.

Deputy Michael P. Kitt

I welcome the opportunity to speak briefly on this Bill. I support what Deputy Moynihan said in proposing the legislation and also the points made by Deputy Colreavy on the matter. As the Minister said, all Members of this House are concerned about the number of customer disconnections that are taking place throughout the country. When I look back with nostalgia on my years in this House, I often recall a time when I could ring an ESB office in my local area - perhaps the regional offices in Ballinasloe or Athlone, or the other offices in Tuam or Loughrea - to talk to someone I knew about disconnections, or about new houses or community centres that needed an electricity supply to be installed. There was a very good engagement between the ESB and the general population, or public representatives advocating on behalf of people. In those days, we probably had more reason to contact ESB offices. It is now very difficult to engage with someone in such circumstances. As Deputy Moynihan said, consumers should have a reasonable opportunity to engage with their energy suppliers. In most cases in rural Ireland, that supplier is the ESB. It would be welcome if consumers could devise payment plans with their energy suppliers, for example. As the Minister knows, many people are now in genuine financial difficulty and need to talk to someone. I welcome the initiatives he mentioned, such as the roll-out of smart meters and the work being done by the Commission for Energy Regulation.

It is amazing that following the reorganisation of the ESB, which took place in the 1980s, I could not deal with offices in Ballinasloe or Athlone when I was working on behalf of people in my part of County Galway. I always found it quite unusual that I had to contact an office in Dundalk. That was the start of the rationalisation that took place within the ESB. As the energy network was rolled out, regional and local offices went by the wayside. The significant centralisation to which I refer has taken place in other areas as well. I hope we can return to the position that prevailed when we were able to talk to designated people about issues relating to payments and breakdowns in supply. It seems from the weather we have had in recent years that more and more breakdowns in supply are likely to take place. This will raise all kinds of issues in people's lives, for example as they try to cook. The supply of water is dependent on electricity. I refer not only to the rural water schemes throughout rural Ireland but also to the schemes provided through local authorities.

These are difficult issues and in many ways I might be like the person who would want to turn back the clock but I would hark back to those days with a certain degree of nostalgia with regard to the engagement with bodies such as ESB in particular.

I also recall another issue that arose in the 1980s, that of co-location when it came to provision of the supply of electricity. The co-location argument related to the erecting of an ESB mast in a location and it also including a phone mast. Such co-location was great until we did not have co-operation because many of the phone suppliers wanted their own masts. Then people began to question - as they are doing now with the pylon issue - the need for all these masts and that if there was colocation for such provision would too much be happening on a mast. It could have been providing electricity supply, the phone network and the famous multipoint microwave distribution system for television, MMDS. Some very inventive people, mostly in the west because of the geographical accident there, as it were, with people not being able to get mutlichannel stations on their televisions, put up deflectors. I remember having a delegation in the Dáil and trying to explain to senators and congressmen from the United States what a deflector system was. It is a difficult system to explain but a man called Tom Gildea from Donegal got elected to the Dáil on the basis that he wanted to have a deflector system in place in Donegal. The words of the song at the time of the campaign were: "The country is a mess - no MMDS". Even though it is Friday I am sure the Acting Chairman will not let me sing that song. The title of the song was "Keep Your Promise to Thomas". People did keep their promise to Thomas and he was elected.

That campaign also helps us understand the emotive situation regarding pylons and how we deal with the electricity supply and if we are to co-locate such provision with the provision of other utilities such as phones, television systems and different forms of energy throughout the country. If we started over again, I am sure we would have great difficulty trying to devise a system of electricity but now that we are where we are, we have to try to deal with the pylon question on the one hand and, as was pointed out by Deputy Moynihan, the question of engagement having regard to the personnel involved. Great people are engaged in the provision of electricity supply and they had to cope in very difficult circumstances with the severe weather conditions in recent months. Every year the issue of a breakdown in energy supply arises due to bad weather conditions.

Another issue is disconnections, which is the main focus of this Bill. We all agree that disconnection should be a last resort. Many studies have been carried out in Australia, as was mentioned, and in New South Wales in particular, on the impact on people of the anxiety caused by disconnections. People may not be able to pay their energy bills due to unemployment, illness, unusually high bills or multiple bills coming into a household. Being disconnected causes people stress and they do not have a chance to discuss these issues. People could be cut off even though they paid their bill some weeks prior to the disconnection. These are all issues that must be taken into consideration. Above all, if a payment plan is put in place it must be realistic. I have been told by many people, and I agree with them, that many payment plans are unaffordable. There is a message in what has happened in the Australian market for the Irish market as to how we should do things better. I am concerned about these matters and in particular about a disconnection which continues for a long time as it compounds difficulties for people. There is the extra cost of reconnecting, of which we are all aware with every utility.

I very much welcome what the Minister said about funding for the Warmer Homes scheme and that he has provided money for this. This is one of the great schemes. The ESB is involved in it. Much work is done under it for people who are in various categories such as those in receipt of fuel allowance where they do not need to apply. Those who have got the work done through private contractors have welcomed it. There are difficulties with regard to what work qualifies and what work does not qualify under the scheme and I have spoken to the Minister about this previously. I always make it clear to my constituents that they should not proceed with any work until they get approval for it under the scheme and are told when to begin work. They should ensure that they do not get caught out by the anomalies and difficulties in this regard where they could be told they should not have started the work or that they have got the wrong work done or the wrong supplier. By and large the companies that do this work are first-class. There was a time when companies could not finish jobs and other companies had to come in to complete the work. Most of those problems have been dealt with. I hope the Minister will continue to secure the funding for the insulation of houses, which is very important for people, be they elderly or suffering long-term illness, who need that comfort and security, and they will enjoy a warmer home because of this good scheme.

Acting Chairman (Deputy Peter Mathews)

As no further Members are indicating, I invite the Minister to make some concluding remarks.

Deputy Pat Rabbitte

I thank the Deputies who have contributed to this discussion on Deputy Moynihan's Bill. I very much welcome the debate because the Deputy is addressing a real issue. It is scarcely surprising that if one has had six years of economic recession that the number of people finding difficulty in discharging their energy bills has been rising. Given the scale of unemployment, notwithstanding the extraordinary figures of last year which took most commentators by surprise - of more than 60,000 people being added to the workforce - the fact is that we have an unconscionably high level of unemployment. That goes to the heart of the problem we are addressing here, that of people who have been plunged into unemployment, some of whom are now in long-term unemployment. That is not to say there is not a problem with the working poor. People on low incomes find themselves in circumstances where they are added to the category of vulnerable customers, and there it is a real issue.

Colleagues across the House agreed with the benefits of the proactive steps taken by the regulator. My Department and myself in meetings with the regulator about this issue, since the installation of pay-as-you-go meters in 2011, have constantly drawn attention to the issue of fuel poverty. The improvements and proactive decisions of the regulator have certainly significantly helped. To give the House an idea of this, nearly 20,000 electricity pay-as-go-meters were distributed to customers in financial difficulty in the first three quarters of last year.

This brings the number of pay-as-you-go meters installed to date to 51,545. In the case of gas, during the first three quarters of 2013, 15,000 pay-as-you-go meters were installed for customers in financial difficulty, bringing the total number of meters installed in that sector to 81,421. Suppliers will argue - we do not have evidence to the contrary - that the installation of pay-as-you-go meters is the reason disconnection numbers are reducing. I tend to believe this is the case.

As has been said, for a period of five months a customer may not be disconnected. However, it remains the case that disconnections are continuing because people are in financial distress. The task force on disconnections about which I spoke is seized of this issue and examining what new steps can be taken in this regard. It has already identified some improvements that could be made. I will meet again later this month the CEOs of the supply and network companies and the regulator, following which I will have something further to say on the issue.

Having grounded the issue in the scale of unemployment, we must look at the bigger picture of how the State, in circumstances where it imports virtually all of its oil and gas, can best use the resources available to it to alleviate fuel poverty. Some 94% of our fuel is imported. We must also look at how the State can use its intervention most productively and efficiently.

I agree with Deputy Michael Kitt's remarks about the warmer homes scheme and that thermal efficiency is the most radical contribution we can make to improving the circumstances of older people and those in hardship. Tests and surveys have been carried out of homes that have been properly retrofitted. Invariably, the word is that this retrofitting has transformed the lives of those concerned. We propose to continue this programme, notwithstanding the commitment to transition to a pay-as-you-go system. The problem with such a system, as evidenced by the Green Deal scheme in Britain, is that given the climate we are in, following the banking collapse, people are reluctant to take on board loan products. Therefore, the grants based incentives are, as stated by Deputy Michael Kitt, doing their job and we are determined to try to maintain them.

As my time has expired, if Deputy Michael Colreavy wishes to send me a note on the case mentioned by him, I will be happy to try to be of assistance, if I can. There appears to be a misunderstanding in that regard. Notwithstanding the debt involved, it is possible to switch supplier. I am, therefore, anxious to see the details of the case and if I can help, I will do so.

Deputy Michael Moynihan

I thank the Deputies present and the Minister for their contributions to the debate. While acknowledging in my opening remarks that a code of conduct has been put in place by the Commission for Energy Regulation, we need to move beyond this and put the code on a statutory footing, which is the purpose in my bringing forward the Bill. We are all aware of what has happened in situations where codes of conduct for various other sectors, including the banking sector, have not been put on a statutory footing. It is important that such codes be put on a statutory footing at this stage.

I welcome the comments of Deputies Michael Colreavy and Michael Kitt on the Bill and the issues arising for elderly persons and others in paying energy bills. However, the kernel of the Bill is that the code of conduct for this sector be put on a statutory footing. I am disappointed that the Government does not agree. I could ream off many codes of conduct put in place but not adhered to because they had not been placed on a statutory footing. I am disappointed that the Government does not propose to progress the Bill, which is common sense legislation which seeks to ensure consumers most in distress would derive some comfort from the legislative process.

Question put.

Acting Chairman (Deputy Peter Mathews)

In accordance with Standing Order 117A(4), the division is postponed until immediately after the Order of Business on Tuesday next.

The Dáil adjourned at 1 p.m. until 2 p.m. on Tuesday, 11 February 2014.