Written answer
Energy Prices
The Minister said retail price regulation is incompatible with liberalised EU markets, but the CRU’s mandate is under review to strengthen consumer protection and affordability.
31. Deputy Séamus McGrath asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment if he will expand the role of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities to regulate retail consumer energy prices. [65840/26]
Comment on this
The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) was assigned consumer protection functions under the 1999 Electricity Regulation Act and subsequent legislation and has statutory responsibility for the compliance by energy suppliers with their consumer protection obligations. The electricity and gas retail markets in Ireland operate within a European Union regulatory regime wherein electricity and gas markets are commercial and liberalised. Regulation of retail prices in the electricity market ended in 2011, and in the gas market in 2014.
The role and remit of CRU, underpinned by the Electricity Regulation Act (1999) and associated revisions, is to ensure an open market with effective competition within both wholesale and retail markets.
The Programme for Government 2025 makes a commitment to "prioritise a review and reform of the legislation underpinning the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU)" and to "emphasise that low costs for households and businesses are a central tenet in the updated mandate of the CRU".
Comprehensive work has been carried out by my Department, working with the CRU, to undertake a review of its leadership structures, resourcing requirements, functions, and accountability mechanisms, as committed to under Actions 21 and 26 of the Energy Security Package.
The objective of the review is to ensure that Ireland has a best-in-class energy regulator that is structured and equipped to deal with current and future demands, and to ensure decarbonisation is achieved in a secure and cost-effective manner while protecting consumers.
My officials will continue to engage with the CRU and relevant stakeholders as work progresses on the review and reform of the legislative framework underpinning the regulator.
Additionally, approval has been given to CRU (March 2026) for 60 new whole time equivalent positions, to meet its strategic objectives.
This brings the sanctioned headcount for CRU to 263. My Department will liaise with CRU in relation to reporting on the recruitment and allocation of the additional staff, on a phased basis, over the next two years.