James Browne (Wexford, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Eireann" and substitute the following:

"acknowledges the Government's response to the significant increases in energy prices for households and businesses due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine;

notes that: — the Government introduced an unprecedented package of supports to protect consumers, including a €2.4 billion package of supports during 2022, and an additional package of once-off measures worth €2.5 billion was included in Budget 2023;

— in February, the Government announced a €1.2 billion package to help families, businesses, pensioners, carers and people with disabilities, including:

— families with children will receive a bonus Child Benefit payment of €100 per child in June;

— a once-off €100 increase in the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance in July;

— the Hot School Meals Programme will be extended to all Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools (DEIS) primary schools from September, benefiting 64,500 children;

— a second lump sum of €200 will be paid in April to people on the Working Family Payment, lone parents, low-income families, carers, those on disability payments, and pensioners among others;

— lower Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise rates will continue to apply on gas, electricity, petrol, diesel and marked gas oil until October;

— simplified application process for the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS) and the level of relief has been increased to 50 per cent of the cost of eligible energy bills; and

— the 9 per cent VAT rate for hospitality has been extended to August;

— in April and May 2022, 99 per cent of eligible domestic electricity accounts were credited with the first Electricity Costs Emergency Benefit payment of €176.22 (excl. VAT), with the total cost of this scheme just under €377 million, and this was of benefit to over 2.1 million households;

— under the second Electricity Costs Emergency Benefit Scheme, the first of three further €200 electricity credits was applied before Christmas, and the second payment was credited to bills in the January/February billing cycle, with the next payment of support being applied in the March/April billing cycle;

— as of 6th January, 2023, the number of domestic electricity accounts in receipt of their first (November/December) credit was 2.15 million, meaning 99.1 per cent of all eligible customers have now had the credit applied to their account;

— combined with the first Electricity Benefit Scheme, over 2.1 million households will have automatically received €800 of income support through their electricity bill at a total cost of €1.59 billion between Q2 2022 and Q2 2023;

— this is in addition to increased funding for supports such as the Fuel Allowance, reducing VAT on gas and electric bills, reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel and a total allocation of €267 million (of which €202 million is carbon tax receipts) to Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) residential and community schemes, including those targeting households at risk of poverty in 2022;

— in 2023, a total of €235 million will be spent on SEAI dedicated energy poverty schemes and Local Authority retrofits, and this funding will target 6,000 free upgrades under the Better Energy Warmer Homes Scheme, with a further 2,400 B2 retrofits of local authority homes next year;

— separate to the Fuel Allowance scheme, the Department of Social Protection pays an electricity or gas allowance under the Household Benefits Package, and a further €203 million will have been spent on the package in 2022, with over 483,000 households expected to have benefited from this;

— in 2022, 4,438 free upgrades were provided to homes at risk of energy poverty through SEAI's Warmer Homes and Warmth and Wellbeing Schemes;

— the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) ended its regulation of retail prices in the electricity market in 2011, and in the gas market in 2014, and given that prices are no longer regulated, they are set by all suppliers as entirely commercial and operational matters by them, with each company having its own different approach to pricing decisions over time, in accordance with factors such as their overall company strategic direction and developments in their cost base; and

— CRU has recently announced a further extension of the moratorium on disconnections for all bill-pay customers until the end of March 2023, and this is in addition to the strengthened consumer protection measures announced last September, which are now all in place, with these measures including a stipulation that suppliers must offer payment plans of up to 24 months;

recognises that:

— the new TBESS will support eligible companies, covering 40 per cent of the increase in their energy bills; and

— the TBESS scheme was due to expire on 28th February, however, as the impact of higher energy costs continue to be keenly felt by businesses across the country, the scheme was extended to 30th April, 2023, and the monthly limit on aid under the scheme was increased from €10,000 to €15,000 per qualifying business in relation to a trade or profession, subject to an overall cap of €45,000 in cases where a business is carried on from more than one location, with the enhanced limits applying for claim periods from 1st March, 2023;

further notes:

— the implementation of Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854, which provides for a cap on market revenues in the electricity sector and a temporary solidarity contribution based on taxable profits in the fossil fuel production and refining sectors;

— on 22nd November, 2022, the Government announced the decision to introduce measures to address windfall gains in the energy sector through the implementation of Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854, an emergency intervention to address high energy prices;

— the legislation to implement this decision is currently being developed, and a general scheme of this legislation is expected to be brought to Government in the coming weeks;

— the Government decided to set a cap of €120 per Megawatt Hour (MWh) for wind and solar, which goes further than the European Union regulation of €180 per MWh in order to fully capture windfall gains, whilst maintaining appropriate future investment signals, and excess revenues will be collected and used to support electricity consumers;

— the cap on market revenues will operate from December 2022 to June 2023 inclusive, as set out in the Council Regulation;

— the Government has decided to implement the Temporary Solidarity Contribution of Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 on fossil fuel production and refining companies that earn unexpected surplus profits in 2022 and 2023;

— the Government has also decided to implement the temporary solidarity contribution to apply to taxable profits which are more than 20 per cent above the baseline period from 2018 to 2021, which will be subject to a rate of 75 per cent, and losses from previous years will not be considered in the calculation of the taxable profits; and

— the proceeds to be collected from the implementation of Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 (cap on market revenues of non-gas electricity generators and the temporary solidarity contribution) will be highly dependent on the level of wholesale gas prices over the coming winter;

further acknowledges that:

— in April 2022, CRU wrote to Eirgrid and ESB Networks notifying them that it would unwind the Large Energy User (LEU) Rebalancing Subvention with effect from 1st October, 2022, the network tariffs had been rebalanced, since October 2010, in favour of LEUs following a 2009 Government decision;

— the 2009 Government decision was made to help safeguard jobs in some of Ireland's most-critical and export-orientated industries, at a time when unemployment was rising at a fast rate;

— the impact of the decision to unwind the rebalancing is estimated to reduce an average domestic customer's annual bill by €40; and

— following the introduction of Network Tariffs for the period October 2022 to September 2023, to include the unwinding of the LEU rebalancing, and the CRU decision to bring the Public Service Obligation levy to a negative value, domestic customers and small commercial customers are expected to see a small decrease in overall network costs when compared to last year; and further recognises that the European Commission is carrying out a review of the electricity market and may propose adjustments following an impact assessment, and Ireland will engage with this programme of work with a view to, inter alia, maintaining the integrity of the all-island Single Electricity Market."

I welcome this debate on high energy costs and their impact on Irish consumers. I thank colleagues from all sides for their contributions. The Government is deeply aware of and concerned by the pressure on people and businesses from the unprecedented high energy prices. It is a priority for the Government to provide supports to alleviate that pressure and intensive work has been and will continue to be undertaken to address the challenges faced by consumers. Energy market developments are monitored and Departments are working to support households and businesses in meeting energy costs. The Government introduced a suite of measures worth €2.4 billion in 2022 to assist households with energy costs. Budget 2023 provided a further €2.5 billion in once-off measures to support households with the rising cost of living. The measures in budget 2023 included a €400 lump sum for fuel allowance recipients, a €200 lump sum for pensioners and people with disabilities getting the living alone allowance, a €500 cost-of-living lump sum to all families getting the working family payment and double payment of child benefit to support all families with children. A €500 cost-of-living payment for people receiving carer’s support grants will be paid in November. A €500 lump sum cost-of-living disability support grant will be paid to all people receiving a long-term disability payment. In February the Government announced a further €1.2 billion package to help families, businesses, pensioners, carers and people with disabilities to cope with cost-of-living pressures.

In April and May 2022, 99% of eligible electricity accounts were credited with an electricity costs emergency benefit payment of €176.22, excluding VAT. The total cost of this scheme was just under €377 million and it was of benefit to an extraordinary number of households. Under the second electricity cost emergency benefit scheme, the first of three further €200 electricity credits was applied just before Christmas. The second payment was credited in bills in the January-February billing cycle and the next is being applied in the March-April cycle. As of 6 January 2023, the number of domestic electricity accounts in receipt of their first November-December credit was 2.15 million, meaning 99.1% of all eligible customers have had the credit applied to their account. Combined with the first electricity benefit scheme, more than 2.1 million households will have automatically received over €800 of income support through their electricity bill at a total cost of €1.59 billion between 2022 and quarter 2 2023.

The Government has also increased funding for supports such as the fuel allowance, reducing VAT on gas and electricity bills and excise duty on petrol and diesel and a total allocation of €267 million, of which €202 million is carbon tax receipts, through Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, residential community schemes, including those targeting households at risk of energy poverty in 2022. The energy poverty action plan, published in December 2022, in response to rising energy prices, sets out a range of near- and medium-term income, social protection and consumer protection support measures. The plan provides for the establishment of a €10 million fund to further support people who are at risk of energy poverty in 2023. There is also a provision in the plan to legislate to extend the definition of vulnerable customer, to include financial vulnerability, which will extend the protection against disconnection for non-payment of account for a longer period over the winter.

The temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS, was due to expire on 28 February. However, as the impact of higher energy costs continue to be keenly felt by businesses throughout the country, the scheme was extended to 30 April 2023. The monthly limit on aid, under the scheme, was increased from €10,000 to €15,000 per qualifying business, with regard to a trade or profession, subject to an overall cap of €45,000, in cases where businesses carried on for more than one occasion. More than 18,700 businesses have registered for TBESS and more than 11,200 claims have already been approved. These approved claims have a value of €22.7 million, with €18.2 million already paid into the business bank accounts.

The Government will implement EU regulation 2022/1854, which seeks to address windfall gains in the energy sector by collecting excess revenues from those companies that have unexpectedly benefitted from high energy prices and redistribute those revenues to alleviate pressure on affected energy consumers, while the proceeds from the implementation of this regulation, including the temporary solidarity contribution from fossil fuel companies and the cap on market revenues in the electricity sector can be used to provide financial supports to households and companies affected by soaring energy prices. The Government has provided and will continue to provide supports to people and businesses affected by the unprecedented high energy prices.

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