Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to pick up again on the 25% to the social climate fund. To put aside the fact that I and my party have issues around the emissions trading scheme, is it not the case that under the current emissions trading scheme 50% of the revenue raised is supposed to be allocated for climate projects? Ireland is an outlier in that we do not ring-fence and we have been called out by the Comptroller and Auditor General because of that and the failure to provide a high level of detail on how we use that revenue. If it was 50% under the existing emissions trading system and is now only 25% under a measure that will clearly impact on households rather than industry, would the Government's position going into the EU Council negotiations be that it would call for a higher percentage of the revenue to at least be targeted in that social climate fund? Mr. Maughan said the memo is going to the Department but will this be considered by the Government? It seems odd that it is 25% in this but they are asking for 50% in the existing ETS for climate-related issues.

The officials may not be able to answer this and I can refer back, but we were promised CSO indicators would come into place in 2020 to better identify those households which would be impacted by energy poverty. Is there any indication of when we will see those CSO indicators as they are a crucial part of our doing those climate plans? The programme for Government commits social transfers to address fuel poverty but we need to be able to identify the households which are most at risk and which would most benefit from retrofitting. The Department of Public Expenditure and Reform admits that we do not have that data and that is why the CSO was asked to do that.