ESB chief executive Paddy Hayes has sought to clarify his comments that the cost of Storm Éowyn could be passed on to the consumers.
Mr Hayes told RTÉ‘s Claire Byrne programme earlier in the week that the costs of the storm would likely end up in higher charges.
“There is a cost associated by this that will ultimately be borne across the electricity network as a whole. It is a devastating and destructive storm, the likes of which we have never seen before,” he said.
His comments were criticised across the political spectrum with newly-appointed Minister of State Jerry Buttimer describing them in the Dáil as “inappropriate” given that thousands of households were spending a second week without power.
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In a statement on Friday, Mr Hayes said: “I can only imagine the hardship for customers who have been without electricity for many days in the aftermath of Storm Éowyn and my heart goes out to them.
“I can understand why, in answering a question about costs, my response might have caused concern. I had absolutely no intention of being insensitive or adding to the stress facing customers at this difficult time. I should have made it clear that it is far too early either to assess the costs of repairing the damage caused by this storm, or to address how those costs will be met.”
The costs of network repairs from Storm Éowyn will not impact on electricity prices during 2025 and, in the longer term, it will be the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities (CRU) which will determine if the costs are passed on to consumers, he added.
Mr Hayes said the damage done to the network was the worst ever experienced by the ESB with 788,000 customers left without power, a third of the network. This compared to 385,000 customers without power after Storm Ophelia in October 2017. The cost of that storm amounted to a one-off payment of €7 per customer from October 2018.
On Friday evening around 5,500 people remained without power according to the ESB, down from a height of more than 760,000 customers.
There were also outages at water treatment plants which cut off water supplies to some people.
Tánaiste Simon Harris earlier said the comments from Mr Hayes were “extraordinarily insensitive” and a “slightly more sensitive approach” was needed.
He added: “We can have discussions about how best to invest – including the size of the ESB’s surplus, by the way, and the dividends and the resources available to the ESB – but when my constituents or certainly citizens in the country of which I’m Tánaiste haven’t had the lights on for two weeks, I’d appreciate a slightly more sensitive approach in relation to these matters.
“There are very big issues here that need to be addressed.
“We can’t continue to have a situation where we’re investing millions and millions of euro through the ESB and repairing lines when the trees are falling down on top of them.
“We need to have a plan in terms of how we protect the ESB’s infrastructure.
“The cost of electricity is something that stresses people in this country.
“It worries people, and I don’t want any person to be worried about the cost of heating the home, cost of turning on the lights.
“And I also do not want people, when they can’t turn on the lights, be hearing the response from the State agency in relation to the lights, saying we’re going to put up your bills.”
Asked about whether customers would not pay for the storm costs, he said: “What I can say to people is, when it becomes apparent what the full costs of that repair is, Government will have to engage with all of the various utilities and all of the various Government departments, and that work will take place.”
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach told reporters in Cork that the Government aims to double the investment in electricity networks over the next five years to some €11 billion with a view to making it more capable of withstanding the sort of the high winds that caused the outages last month.
Mr Martin said that Storm Éowyn was the most severe storm to hit Ireland in living memory and the Government has been liaising with various agencies to make the supply network more robust to prevent any repeat.
“ESB Networks have never seen anything likely this in terms of the impact on the power lines and the grid (but) the cost involved in repairing and restoring the grid will be nowhere near the cost of actually enhancing the grid and developing the grid,” he said.
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