120. Deputy Kathleen Funchion asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to confirm how a person (details supplied) can claim their electricity account credit if they changed supplier and their previous supplier is refusing to pay credit from 2023, despite acknowledging they are due a repayment; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20075/24]

As part of Budget 2024 Government approved a new tranche of Emergency Electricity Credits which over 2.2 million households are benefitting from - worth €450 in total per household.

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 were assessed to ensure that payments were 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. Domestic electricity accounts flagged as low usage accounts, were not allocated a payment for that payment period. The payment was not 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.

It is the supplier that a customer was registered with on 29 November 2023, in respect of the first payment, 20 December 2023, in respect of the second payment, and 28 February 2024, in respect of the third payment, that was allocated a payment in respect of the customer’s account.

The Scheme allows for review by a customer’s electricity supplier, if contacted by a customer who has not received the payment. 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. I would encourage any customer who thinks that they should have received the credit to contact their supplier at the first instance, and then the CRU if they have still not received the credit.