Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach was absolutely right that this Government is committing to protecting and helping every single family and household through this very difficult time in paying energy bills. There is a variety of measures. If they were easy and simplistic solutions that would be great but that is not the real world. In this real world what is actually working is the range of measures the Government is delivering on, such as increases in social welfare protection and increases in energy payments to households. As I understand it, last week Sinn Féin was arguing that we should be giving greater loans to people in difficulty, particularly households using prepay meters. From listening and talking to the experts in the area, they say that is not the right solution because it would put people into further debt. We have been talking to the energy supply companies and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and setting out a policy in a co-ordinated and proper way. We will come out in the coming weeks with a further iteration of our combating energy poverty action plan. That will build on what actually works.

The Deputy says this measure is charity. I disagree. What we are talking about here is the community, the Governments, NGOs and others working together. It is not charity. It is appropriate that we use the tools that work. Sinn Féin has argued against special needs payments and says that should not be our approach. Sinn Féin's budget proposed a €15 million hardship fund. So far this year we have spent €38 million. The Minister for Social Protection has committed to making sure we have the staff and the resources so that any household in difficulty is able to avail of those funds. That is far better than the credit solution Sinn Féin is proposing, which would put families into further debt difficulties.

We launched the next phase of the #ReduceYourUse campaign yesterday. We did so in the offices of Alone because of its expertise and ability to find, target and help households, particularly those in older age groups, that might not find it easy to go through the social welfare system. We are targeting, identifying and helping them. It is right and appropriate to use the mechanisms that are in place and that are working. Rather than cutting people off, households can avail of the funds that are there and which can be deployed with advice from MABS, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and others. Why would we get rid of a system that has the financial resources to help those households and is working? We will continue to make sure it works right through this winter period.

It is so easy to suggest a facile solution to what is actually a very complex situation, where every household has different circumstances. The right approach in tackling poverty and energy poverty at this particular time is providing cash payments. That is the best way to help people through, as well as a range of other measures. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, has already significantly changed its rules and recognised this problem, so if people do get into debt difficulties, they will have much easier repayment schedules. Anyone in such difficulty, particularly those on prepay meters, has to have access to the cheapest payment rates. It is these practical measures that actually address the problem and will get us through this difficult period.

As I said, if there are any gaps or any instances where people are not able to get resources to help, we will look at that and go back and change the policy. That commitment from the Government is real. That commitment to help our households is real in the billions of euro that have been provided in energy credit payments, which will start on 1 November. That is a measure where people get cash and we saw how the first payment worked. The number of families in arrears went from about 200,000 down to 150,000. That was from one payment. We have three further payments to deploy. That is real money and real help.

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