The Government is looking at mechanisms to protect pay-as-you-go energy customers to avoid households facing disconnections this winter.
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said it is looking at ways to extend the treatment rolled out to bill-paying customers to pay-as-you-go customers to help protect families during the cold weather.
Mr Varadkar said he agrees the disconnections should be banned for prepay metres throughout the winter but said it has to find a “viable mechanism” to do that.
He said that the Minister for Environment Eamon Ryan is meeting with energy companies today to examine what additional measures can be put in place to protect all households on pay-as-you-go meters.
The Government is under pressure to include pay-as-you-go customers in the disconnection moratorium.
Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty said the plan to introduce a ban on disconnections for bill-pay customers from December until February is “not good enough”.
Speaking in the Dáil during leaders’ questions, Mr Varadkar said that pay-as-you-go customers can overrun by €20 and will not be cut off over weekends but acknowledged this was not an “adequate solution”.
Mr Varadkar added: “For people using pay-as-you-go meters, the Deputy (Doherty) and I both understand that that is a much more complicated system because of the way it operates.
“However, the overdraft people have is now extended to 20 euro so people can run over the meter by up to 20 euro without facing the risk of disconnection.
“In addition, having spoken to some people who are on pay-as-you-go meters, I believe it is already the case that, at least in a lot of cases, people cannot be disconnected on a weekend so that people have the time to top up.
“That is not the full solution, and it is not an adequate solution at this stage.”
He added: “I know that is not enough, and we will need to come up with a better solution for those hardship cases to make sure people are not disconnected over the winter, regardless of how they pay.”
Mr Doherty warned households that cannot pay their bills are in danger of disconnection.
He said 712 households were disconnected in the first six months of this year.
“That was before the impact of the huge increases in bills and the impact of winter,” the Donegal TD said.
“The weather has started to turn. It is getting colder. Winter is nearly here and workers and families need certainty.
“The plan to introduce a ban on disconnections for bill-pay customers from December until February is not good enough.
“It leaves people waiting far too long for protection and the timespan is too short.
“There are 125,000 households currently in arrears and this figure, unfortunately, is only going in one direction.
“What is needed is an immediate ban on disconnections now and to run that ban right through to the end of March.
“That is crucial because this will not apply to workers and families with a prepay meter.”
It comes as EirGrid warned that the supply of electricity will fall short of demand over the next decade.
In its generation capacity statement, the grid operator said the situation was “stark” and that householders face a “tight” winter ahead.
It also warned that it cannot guarantee there will be no blackouts this winter.
Mr Varadkar said that while nobody can rule out the possibility of blackouts this winter, the chances of a prolonged blackout affecting householders and businesses are very low.
