Two weeks ago, the Taoiseach gave a commitment that no household would be disconnected from electricity this winter, including households using prepaid meters. However, since then, the Government has not introduced any plan to protect prepay customers from disconnection. This can and must be done. As the Taoiseach knows, some prepay companies already have bans on disconnections at weekends and on some public holidays. This ban should be extended to provide 24-7 protection for prepay customers. It should kick in now and run until the end of March. This is a simple solution to a big problem that affects hundreds of thousands of households. Why is the Taoiseach waiting? Will he engage with the energy companies and agree this solution with urgency?

I thank the Deputy for raising the issue. The winter moratorium on disconnections for all domestic customers for non-payment has been extended to three months, from 1 December 2022 to 28 February 2023. Furthermore, the moratorium on disconnections of registered vulnerable customers for non-payment has been extended to six months, from 1 October 2022 until 31 March 2023.

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, has decided to suspend the €200 gas meter exchange site works charge associated with a customer moving from a pay-as-you-go gas meter to a bill-pay credit meter for all domestic customers. That is welcome. The level of emergency credit for people on meters was increased by the CRU from €10 and €20. That is essentially an overdraft. That issue is under review in terms of any potential further increase. However, the Minister has met with the suppliers. He has met with the CRU, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and the Money Advice and Budgeting Service. There is a view that extending the overdraft or putting people further into debt may not be the best way to go. The Minister is having further discussions on that and keeping it under active review.

I thank speakers for staying within time. I call Deputy Bacik.