Rebecca Moynihan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming to the House to take this Bill, which is welcome, today. I do not need to tell him that in addition to the once-off energy payments we are making, there is a fundamental need for a change in our energy sector due to the what we have seen in terms of the inflationary impact of the war in Ukraine and gas prices in the past year.

Elevated gas prices have resulted in a stark increase in revenues from the electricity market, which has left more and more families and households crippled by the rising cost of energy. That is already devastating during a cost of living crisis. We need fundamental reform to properly address this energy crisis, not just once-off payments. Yesterday, one of the Minister's colleagues, Deputy Brian Leddin, had an interesting briefing from Wind Energy Ireland on the decarbonisation of the Irish market and the huge opportunity this provides for us in terms of the decarbonisation of our electricity grid. That is where the central focus needs to be. The proposed new planning Bill will help in this regard and we need to make sure we have a planning system that is fit for large-scale decarbonisation.

Another area we have welcomed is investment in solar energy generation and the SEAI grants that have been made available which have allowed more people to install solar panels in their households. From a green perspective, Senator Pauline O'Reilly spoke about solar panels in schools. Further investment in this area needs to continue.

We need to ensure that the most cost-effective solutions for people heating their homes coincide with green solutions. It is clear that we have the potential in Ireland to combat this energy crisis and we welcome new renewable ways to heat our homes and combat energy poverty. The ideas, technology and potential are there and we need focus from Government, along with prioritisation and political will. There is clearly an appetite across the public and political parties for a shift to greener energy and we need to scale up and have the State leading the action.

We need to begin to look at things like district heating, rather than individual retrofits of housing stock. We need local area retrofitting, rather than retrofitting individual houses. We need to make sure that those most at risk this winter and into the future have access to adequate energy and decarbonised heating in their homes. A targeted approach is needed to ensure that low income households who are at most risk of energy poverty get the support they need.

One example would be expanding the warmer homes scheme to include houses built in 2011, like the SEAI, rather than those built in 2006. They are the most vulnerable people. Older and newer houses that can avail of the warmer home scheme are not included, unlike those that qualify for SEAI grants. We need to introduce a targeted retrofit programme for rental accommodation to ensure that renters, who are some of the more vulnerable in our society and live in some of the most insecure housing, are not left behind when it comes to energy poverty.

The energy crisis is going to affect everybody but, like the housing crisis, it affects some people an awful a lot more than others. We cannot make the same mistakes that we have made with the housing crisis and allow certain sectors of society to fall behind.They need our full support and this can come in the form of targeted supports, energy decarbonisation, electrifying our system and retrofitting our housing stock.