Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I am very aware that many families are experiencing financial hardship including the cost of heating their homes, due to the current economic difficulties.

I have no statutory function in the setting of energy prices, whether in the regulated or non-regulated market. Responsibility for the regulation of the electricity and gas markets is a matter for the Commission for Energy Regulation, CER, which is an independent statutory body. The Irish oil industry is fully privatised, liberalised and deregulated and there is free entry to the market.

The Government is, however, taking a range of actions to address the challenge of affordable energy for vulnerable families. The Government's strategy for affordable energy in Ireland was launched by me last November. The strategy sets out our plans for enhancing the affordability of energy for low-income households. The strategy was developed by the interdepartmental group on affordable energy and includes 48 actions that will be implemented over the life of the strategy. The interdepartmental group on affordable energy has established subgroups to work on particular dimensions of that strategy and these include the immediate priority of revising eligibility criteria for the warmer homes scheme and a pilot programme to assess the feasibility of an area-based approach to delivery of the scheme.

It is worth noting that in the past ten years €2 billion has been distributed in energy supports under the national fuel scheme and the household benefits package, while €80 million has been spent on energy efficiency improvements in vulnerable homes. Permanent improvements to the thermal efficiency of houses are the most cost effective means of addressing energy poverty. More immediately, the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, continues to administer, on behalf of my Department, Warmer Homes which is free of charge to eligible applicants. With more than 81,000 homes refurbished to date, 2012 will see a further 17,000 low-income households benefit from energy efficiency upgrades. I have allocated just over €17 million to the warmer homes scheme this year. This allocation underlines the Government's commitment to the affordable energy priority.

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