Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As the Deputy will be aware, the Finance Bill is going through the Houses. It will create the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS, which will help businesses with the increased cost of electricity and gas. However, she is correct to point out that the scheme will only apply to businesses. It is run by the Revenue Commissioners and operates in the form of a tax credit. We acknowledge that we will have to help out non-businesses with the high cost of energy. These include sporting organisations in some cases and community centres in others. They may also include addiction services, such as those the Deputy mentioned. We set aside a fund for that in the budget. I am not sure if the question of how that will be deployed has been fully worked out yet, but we accept that we will need to help out those bodies with their high energy costs because if we do not, they will not be able to provide the vital services that they do.

The Minister of State with responsibility for drug and addiction services, Deputy Feighan, is just behind me. He would be happy to follow the matter up with the Deputy directly to see if we can assist in any way.

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