Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I did not think I would get in so quickly. I thank the Minister for coming. I congratulate him on the measures that he brought in in the budget, which the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, confirmed will protect the estimated 29% who at risk of energy poverty. They are very welcome. It is over the winter period and we need to revisit some of these things. I welcome the new measures the Minister is announcing. will come back to them.

I have a few questions. In respect of the energy credit going to householders, has the Minister at this stage been able to estimate how much we might recoup from the EU measures that are now in the offing? That is, the capping of the price of electricity for the non-gas providers and the solidarity tax on the fossil fuel, and perhaps the longer-term market reform that is coming.

On the emergency temporary provision, how is the state aid being structured? Is this a price commitment in terms of supporting the price that would be paid a capital allocation? It will be there for just four winters at most, although this sort of equipment, presumably, has a 20-year life span or something of that nature. What happens after that? It seems that it would be very expensive and wasteful to take it out of the Irish system. How is that going to happen?

Does the Minister have line of sight on the features that stalled the last auction – things such as planning, availability of equipment and compliance with environmental requirements? Do we have clear line of sight to the effect that none of those things will obstruct this?

My final questions are on the sound and vision initiative. As the Minister knows, I am strongly advocating for a resilience campaign around our reliance on imports. I would like to hear that is going beyond just talking about climate and looking at the practical things that can be done.

In the context of local authority planning, no local authority, to my knowledge, has yet put in place a public electric vehicle charger with the grant that the Government makes available to them. I know that has been changed. However, it suggests there is a bit of a disconnect between the emergency that people are facing and the attitude of local authorities. Can the Minister bring a little urgency into this, along with the allocation of the extra money?