Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. We absolutely recognise that there is a lot of worry out there. Many households, businesses, community groups, sports clubs and so on are genuinely worried about the months ahead and the bills that are coming their way. They worry about how they are going to be able to meet those bills. We accept that, and it is why we have brought forward a whole range of issues, which I will not go through again because I think people are well familiar with them. However, by any measure, it is a serious response from the Government. We have done the best we can in bringing forward an €11 billion package that will benefit every household in the country.

The Deputy made points about the energy companies. We are acting on that through the EU framework. There was agreement on 30 September at the Council of energy ministers. That will result in a temporary solidarity contribution from the fossil fuel production companies and a cap on market revenues for those energy providers that have not seen an increase in their costs. That will apply to providers involved in wind and solar energy, and so on. The commitment we are giving is that the resources that we collect, and we are currently calculating and assessing how much money Ireland is likely to get from those initiatives, will be given back to households and businesses to help them cope with the increased bills they are facing.

The cap on market revenues must be implemented by the start of December and the solidarity contribution by the end of December. That is a tight timeframe, given that legislation and technical implementation in the energy market will be needed. The Government is committed to doing that and to making sure that we provide the benefit of that extra revenue we will collect for those who need it most.

The temporary business energy support scheme will be up and running next month. It will be backdated to 1 September. As the Deputy knows, it provides for a payment, capped at €10,000 per month, to individual businesses which will meet 40% of the increase in their energy costs this year relative to last year. It will be based on the per unit price. Of course, that will be administered by the Revenue Commissioners. We believe it will be of significant benefit to businesses all over the country.

We know that clubs, service providers and community groups are facing a hard winter. We want to keep the floodlights on. We want to keep our community halls warm. We want people to be able to avail of all of these vital services and local amenities. That is why we have provided €340 million in extra funding between now and the end of the year across a whole range of areas. Some €35 million, for example, will be provided for our sports clubs to ensure that our children and all members of clubs across the country can continue to avail of the facilities that we and local communities have invested in over the years.

See this speech in context