Eamon Ryan has defended a government decision to charge households more for their energy to reduce the cost to big businesses - without them knowing.
An Oireachtas committee heard on Tuesday how residential electricity customers had at least €50 million (combined) added to their electricity bills every year for 12 years to benefit the likes of tech and pharma firms as well as data centres.
Cabinet signed off on the ‘large energy user (LEU) rebalancing subvention’ which ran from 2010 to 2022, despite one of their own memos saying it would be “unpopular”.
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The change to electricity tariffs is estimated to have cost each residential customer around €50 a year.
But it also emerged at the Environment and Climate Action Committee that ESB Networks had been taking even more than the agreed €50m annual sum for 11 out of the 12 years - but were at pains to say it did not benefit them.
Unlike EirGrid they decided to roll out the ‘large energy user (LEU) rebalancing subvention’ by skewing a percentage of network charges in favour of large users.
We asked the Minister for Environment, Climate and Communications if he thought it was fair to add this charge to household bills.
He said: “That was the right call in my mind.
“It was done because our economy at the time was at real risk, our energy prices to large industrial users was way above the European average and we risked losing employers and losing corporate tax and all the other income those industries brought.
“I think it was a perfectly valid decision for the people of this country to make sure that we had a strong economy that gave us jobs, gave us the income to pay our way.”
We asked if it was fair to put that on everyday people, who were also feeling the pinch, without asking.
He added: “The people were at risk of losing their jobs.”
Households will not get back the full cost of the tariff change from 2010 to 2022.
But they will be paid €50 this year to make up for the additional funding ESB took.
It remains unclear how the payment will be rolled out.
Minister Ryan added: “Where you find out there’s been an overpayment, then you pay it back.
“I have every confidence in CRU to manage that regulation.
“They [ESB] should have applied it in a different way... but having found that they are going to be able to repay.”
It is estimated businesses in Ireland paid €600 million less for electricity from 2010-2022 because of the scheme.
Commission for Regulation of Utilities chair Aoife MacEvilly told politicians: "Domestic bills were being charged more than we had directed, and the benefit did not go to ESB Networks. It went to the large energy users.
"Having identified that now, just to be absolutely clear, we have decided absolutely that money will be paid back to domestic customers."
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