O’Flynn opposes €225 charge for ESB meters

THE chairman of a powerful backbench committee said yesterday that he would resist any effort to make ESB customers fork out €225 each for “smart meters”.

Noel O’Flynn, who chairs the Oireachtas Committee on Communications and Energy, said the ESB and other energy and utility companies should consider the new meter as a long-term investment and should be prevented from passing on the costs to customers.

Mr O’Flynn was responding to weekend reports that the energy regulator Tom Reeve was currently considering a proposal to introduce the meters to Ireland.

The meters, which give customers detailed information about their energy use, have an electronic link to the utility company which will mean an end to the practice of reading meters and estimating energy usage, thus saving money for utility companies. An ESB spokesman told a Sunday newspaper that the cost of the meter would have to be absorbed by customers.

But this was challenged yesterday by Mr O’Flynn, who said: “I am totally opposed to any suggestion that any energy company would ask customers to pay for the meter. This should be considered a long-term investment. It will involve big savings for both the companies and for the customer and it would be totally unfair to pass the cost of providing them on to the customer."