Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

——who moved quickly to increase the free fuel allowance by €5 from €9 to €14. This increase benefits over 270,000 people. He also increased by over €200 the natural gas allowance under the household benefits package to the 26,000 welfare and other recipients who benefit from the scheme, as well as more than doubling the kilowatt hours freely available to pensioners from 1674 kilowatt hours to approximately 3600 kilowatt hours for each of the 300,000 households catered for under the scheme. Those of us on this side of the House would profess ourselves to be very proud of the positive action taken by Government to insulate the more vulnerable sections of society from these price increases.

Notwithstanding those very significant increases in benefits and allowances, I still believe that these huge increases need not have been imposed and a review must take place, taking into account the current situation. It would be reassuring to think that the regulator and the providers would act equally as quickly when the prices fall as they do when they rise. I hope that greater co-operation between the regulators will see a pooling of resources and information to bring greater benefit to the consumer.

The 21st century presents huge challenges to all in society in providing clean, safe energy which will allow for economic expansion, while at the same time protecting our environment. Alternative sources of electrical generation are feeding a small amount of electricity into the national grid. The single market will create a more attractive location for new electricity generation investment and will help to improve the security and reliability of electricity supplies across the entire country. I compliment the initiative of the two Governments on embarking upon a joint approach to tackle the electricity and broad energy needs of the island of Ireland in the medium and long term.

A joint North-South public consultation on an all-Ireland vision for renewable energy has been undertaken and this forms part of the long-term strategy for alternative sources of energy. It is intended that a joint policy paper on long-term sustainability of energy supplies will be developed in the coming months with a particular focus on renewable electricity generation.

We will clearly need to provide a much greater proportion of renewable electricity generation for our needs and the provisions of this Bill will facilitate the entry into the marketplace of those entrepreneurs and companies willing to produce additional electricity from renewable sources into the overall electricity pool. We owe it to the next generation to be more determined and far-sighted in our energy management strategy. The development of the all-Ireland energy market is a good example of this and I compliment the Minister and the Minister of State on the work they do in this area.

I hope that with this improved efficiency we will see greater emphasis on improving the service given to consumers by the ESB and other providers. I mention the ESB in particular because, like other public representatives, I am aware of issues involving the delivery of an electricity service that is increasingly removed from the end user. For many years we could have pointed to the ESB as being one of the most efficient and cost-effective utility providers in the State. While it has struggled to meet the challenge of the growing economy, I am sure Deputy Durkan will agree that we in County Kildare have noted many problems. I could instance literally dozens of examples, such as the number of new housing estates in my constituency without public lights for months or even years, leaving householders increasingly frustrated without, it seems, any recourse.

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