Energy Usage

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 17 January 2024

Wednesday, 17 January 2024

Ceisteanna (81, 102, 106, 117, 124)

Jackie Cahill

Ceist:

81. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to review the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [56906/23]

Patrick Costello

Ceist:

102. Deputy Patrick Costello asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will amend the legislation for the energy credit under Budget 2023 to include the removal of the exclusion of ‘low usage’ homes in cases whereby new tenants/owners move into a previously vacant unit. [57332/23]

Jackie Cahill

Ceist:

106. Deputy Jackie Cahill asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to review the case of a person (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1050/24]

Paul Kehoe

Ceist:

117. Deputy Paul Kehoe asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if he will consider amending the terms of the scheme to provide electricity credits to domestic residents to include people living in accommodation that have been deemed ineligible for energy credits due to a low consumption designation when a person can demonstrate that current consumption meets normal levels, for example where a person moved a property in mid-2023, up to which point it had been vacant for several years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1589/24]

Richard Boyd Barrett

Ceist:

124. Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications the reason people with low energy usage between July 2022 and June 2023 are being penalised by ineligibility for the electricity credit, as many of these people are on low incomes and are desperately in need of the credits; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1645/24]

Freagraí scríofa

Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications

I propose to take Questions Nos. 81, 102, 106, 117 and 124 together.

As 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 automatically. Households do not need to apply for it, nor do they need to contact their electricity supplier.

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. If a domestic electricity account identified by ESB Networks on the effective date in respect of each payment, is flagged as a low usage account, it 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 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.