Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Deputy's offer to co-operate with the Government to bring this in as soon as possible. That absolutely makes sense. I also welcome Deputy McDonald's comments today that she welcomes this initiative and that it will bring some relief. In terms of when this can be done, we cannot legislate before January but we will bring this in as soon as possible. With the co-operation of the Opposition I think we can bring it in very quickly. The target is to get it done in the first quarter.

Of course, there are two parts to this. There is what happens in the short term during this winter and how we avoid this type of situation occurring in the long term. That is what the toolbox discusses. The toolbox asks us to target people in energy poverty. It asks us to make sure we are broadly helping those who need it most and also finding long-term solutions in terms of switching to renewable energy and energy efficiency. That is why there is nearly €200 million of retrofitting funds being targeted specifically at low-income houses over the course of the next 12 months.

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