Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

I move:

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

"notes that:

— the Government is acutely aware of the recent energy price increases and the impact it has on households and businesses;

— the Government acknowledges the latest data for June shows that 13 per cent of households are in arrears on their electricity bills and 25 per cent on their gas bills, and supporting these households must remain a priority;

— the previous Government introduced a suite of measures over recent years to help households and businesses deal with the rising cost of energy at a time of very high inflation, including €1,500 in electricity credits to all households through four Electricity Costs Emergency Benefit Schemes, at a cost of €3.3 billion, this is in addition to one-off payments to support certain social protection payment recipients;

— the Government provides support for households through schemes, including the Fuel Allowance, Household Benefits Package (HBP) and Additional Needs Payment;

— Irish electricity and gas prices have historically been higher than other European Union (EU) countries due to long standing drivers, such as geographical isolation, dispersed population, fossil fuel dependency and small market scale;

— the electricity and gas markets in Ireland are commercial, liberalised, and competitive, and competitive energy markets result in greater choice for consumers and businesses, in terms of suppliers, products and prices, price setting by electricity suppliers is a commercial and operational matter for the companies concerned; and

— the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) published a report on retail energy markets in September 2023 in relation to competition and supplier pricing in the energy market, based on a review of supplier prices and wholesale market costs, the CRU considers that retail prices broadly continue to reflect underlying cost drivers, such as wholesale gas and electricity prices, but with a lag period due to supplier hedging strategies; and

affirms that:

— the Government has approved an extension of the 9 per cent Value Added Tax rate currently applied to gas and electricity to end in October 2025 at an estimated cost of €85 million with the net benefit to households from 1st May to 31st October being approximately €26.60 with respect to electricity and €20.28 with respect to gas;

— a range of social welfare measures are available to assist households with energy costs;

— the first winter Fuel Allowance payment of €33 per week starts this week and will continue for 28 weeks, totalling €924 each year, this payment supports over 410,000 households with their energy costs;

— the HBP supports over 540,000 households with their gas and electricity bills and is paid at a rate of €35 per month, 12 months of the year;

— the Additional Needs Payment scheme is available in cases where a person genuinely cannot meet this cost from their own resources and provides a discretionary exceptional needs payment to help meet essential costs, such as a fuel bill;

— following a review of the effectiveness of consumer protection measures over the past winter, the CRU announced some key consumer protection measures will stay in place, including a moratorium on disconnection for vulnerable customers from 1st November, 2025, until 31st March, 2026; and

— the Government has established the National Energy Affordability Taskforce (the Taskforce) to identify, assess and implement measures that will enhance energy affordability for households and businesses while delivering key renewable commitments and protecting security of supply and economic stability;

— the Taskforce:

— will ensure that energy affordability is incorporated into the review of CRU and the regulatory framework;

— is chaired by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, and its membership includes, representatives of various Government Departments and crucial energy sector stakeholders, the work will include, the preparation and implementation of an energy affordability action plan, which will include recommendations for structural reforms to benefit consumers in the medium- and long-term;

— their work will include, a full review of cost drivers within the energy sector, and consideration of how the EU Action Plan for Affordable Energy: Unlocking the true value of our Energy Union to secure affordable, efficient and clean energy for all Europeans and associated guidance can be implemented in an Irish context; and

— their first item of work is the development of an interim plan, including measures for consideration to support customers in Winter 2025/26, in order to inform Budget 2026 discussions;

— the wider package of energy efficiency supports, available from Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, make it easier and more affordable for homeowners to undertake home energy upgrades, for warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes, with lower energy bills, and this year, a record annual capital budget of more than €550 million has been allocated for these schemes, including the Solar Photovoltaic Scheme, meaning more funding than ever is available to make buildings warmer, healthier, more comfortable and less expensive to heat;

— a record €280 million has been allocated to the Warmer Homes Scheme to provide fully funded upgrades for households at risk of energy poverty, representing an 11-fold increase over the spend on the scheme in 2020 and underlines the Government's commitment to supporting households with their energy costs;

— the Government is committed to continuing with the planned carbon tax increases, aligning with recommendations from the Climate Change Advisory Council and scientific experts, and to continue to use the additional revenues to fund social welfare measures, agri-environmental schemes and retrofitting;

— the National Development Plan will provide for the provision of up to €3.5 billion in additional equity for Electricity Supply Board Networks and EirGrid to support an unprecedented investment in electricity grid infrastructure over 2026 – 2030, this equity will enable the companies to raise finance for the planned investment of up to €18.08 billion;

— this investment will support the delivery of the electricity grid for 2026 – 2030 in line with the CRU Price Review Six (PR6) draft determination published in July, and represents a step change in investment in our electricity grid infrastructure;

— while it is regrettable that Electricity Network tariffs will increase to support this investment under PR6, the investments in vital infrastructure are necessary to transform our electricity system to support a growing population, new housing and expanding businesses;

— the Programme for Government reaffirms Ireland's ambitious targets of 9 gigawatts (GW) of onshore wind capacity, 8 GW of solar capacity and at least 5 GW of offshore wind capacity connected to the grid in order to meet the requirement of 80 per cent of electricity demand supplied by renewables;

— the Public Services Obligation (PSO) levy funds Ireland's renewable electricity support schemes, the Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff and the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme, and is a key enabler of investment needed to meet national targets for renewable generation and carbon emissions reduction;

— the PSO levy has a reduction of about 40 per cent on 2024/25 to €2 a month or circa €24 in the year;

— the Programme for Government sets out a clear policy direction that balances energy, housing, climate and economic development, recognising that increased and unprecedented investment in our electricity grid and generation capacity is essential to meet future demand, not just for data centres but for housing, electric vehicles, heat pumps and a growing population;

— the best long-term approach for Ireland to insulate consumers from volatility on international wholesale energy markets is to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy, cutting our dependence on fossil fuels and generating power from our own renewable sources ensuring a cleaner, cheaper energy future; and

— the Government will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders through the pre-budget process and in advance of forming measures for inclusion in Budget 2026."

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí i bPáirtí Shinn Féin ós rud é gur thug siad an díospóireacht seo os comhair na Dála. Tugann sé deis dom é seo a phlé anocht. In the past year, there has been a certain level of stability with regard to energy prices, but a number of suppliers have announced price increases in the coming weeks. Domestic energy prices and cost-of-living pressures are matters of serious concern. The Government is acutely aware - we are all TDs in our constituencies - of the challenges households in meeting these costs and we want to support those most at risk. I would like to take the opportunity to reaffirm to the House that the Government has made a number of important commitments in respect of addressing the continued high cost of energy. The programme for Government acknowledges the increased energy cost pressures on households and businesses and commits to bringing forward taxation measures to help contain energy costs.

The electricity and gas retail markets operate within a European Union regulatory regime wherein electricity and gas markets are commercial and liberalised. That is not the same as saying it is privatised. Competition has been brought into the market. However, the idea that the family silver was sold off - in the words of Deputy Mac Lochlainn - is not accurate. Competition is not the same thing as privatisation. Price setting by electricity suppliers, including standing charges, is a commercial and operational matter for the companies concerned. Each company has its own approach to pricing decisions over time. Within a competitive environment, providers also have costs they always have. The CRU ended its regulation of retail prices in the electricity market in 2011 and in the gas market in 2014. The CRU carried out a review of the pricing and hedging strategies of energy suppliers in 2023. Following this review the regulator published a report outlining that it saw no evidence of failure in the retail market, but it would continue to monitor this.

Network tariffs, which are a significant component of a customer's bill, are used to finance the maintenance and expansion of our grid. These are necessary tasks to ensure our journey to net zero and that we can actually generate and distribute electricity produced on this island. This will have long run benefits for electricity users throughout Ireland. Delivering investment in our grid, including the full price review 6, PR6, programme, offers one of the fastest means by which to impact upon overall electricity costs to consumers. PR6 will deliver the programme for Government priority to ensure that the necessary investment is made in our grid. The CRU as the independent economic regulator of EirGrid and ESB Networks is responsible for PR6. The CRU public consultation on PR6 has recently closed and now the CRU will independently consider submissions received before publishing a final decision. The Government fully supports the full implementation of the associated programme of works.

To support the investment, the Government is investing €3.5 billion in equity in EirGrid and ESB Networks - State companies - to ensure that the PR6 infrastructure programme can be delivered. This will reduce borrowing costs for the system operator companies and help keep consumer costs down. In relation to data centres, while already contracted data centres will be accommodated in the near term, the Government has committed to developing a plan-led approach for future large energy users to accelerate energy generation, connectivity and planning processes. This will align with our decarbonisation objectives, supporting Ireland’s knowledge-led economy and providing certainty for the sector. Ireland has attracted the best data centre and tech companies in the world. This is a really important relationship, and the Government continues to work with the sector towards a secure and decarbonised energy future. The Government supports the work of the CRU in developing an updated large energy users, LEU, connection policy, which will consider the impact of future LEU connections on the capacity of our energy and grid infrastructure.

The Government is aware that energy customers in Ireland still pay significantly more on their energy bills than they did in 2020. The Government has taken action to ensure households are supported to meet these costs. It has introduced measures over recent years to help households and businesses deal with the rising cost of energy, including electricity credits to all households through four electricity costs emergency benefit schemes at a cost of €3.3 billion. This is in addition to one-off payments to support certain social protection payment recipients. The Government is committed to addressing high energy costs experienced by consumers. The programme for Government acknowledges this and commits to bringing forward measures to help maintain the costs. The Government recently approved an extension of the 9% VAT rate currently applied to gas and electricity by a further six months to October 2025 at an estimated cost of €85 million.

Historically, a VAT rate of 13% has been applied to gas and electricity, but this has been reduced to 9% since 2022, and it does cost taxation money to maintain that.

The regulator recently published enhanced customer protection measures for the upcoming winter period. A key measure includes a disconnection moratorium. This will remain in place from 1 November 2025 to the end of March 2026 for vulnerable customers, while the moratorium for priority services registered customers will remain in place all year. The winter disconnection moratorium for all other domestic customers will be in place from 8 December until 16 January. It is important that anybody who is struggling with bills is strongly encouraged to engage with his or her supplier. Under the energy engage code, suppliers will not disconnect customers who engage with them.

The Government is working at speed to roll out more renewable energy infrastructure. This is already helping to bring down the cost of electricity and is the long-term solution to high energy bills. The programme for Government reaffirms Ireland’s ambitious renewable targets to meet the requirement of 80% of electricity demand supplied by renewables by 2030. The PSO levy is a crucial policy instrument to achieving these targets by funding Ireland’s renewable electricity support schemes, REFIT and RESS. The PSO levy is a key enabler of investment needed to meet our targets for renewable generation, carbon emission reductions and lower costs. It represents a modest element of customer bills and will reduce in the coming tariff year by 40% to €24 in the year. In addition, the Government is making it easier for people to improve their energy efficiency and produce their own energy through a range of grants to install solar PV on homes, businesses and farms. Yes, we would like for all of this to be rolled out more quickly but it is rolling out and lots of people are benefiting from this. The previous budget included record funding of €469 million from the carbon tax for residential and community energy upgrades. That was an increase in funding and meant more money was available to make buildings warmer, healthier, more comfortable and less expensive to heat, and that is having an impact around the country.

In June of this year, a cross-Government national energy affordability task force, chaired by the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, was established to identify, assess and implement measures that would enhance energy affordability for households and businesses while delivering key renewable commitments and protecting security of supply for economic stability. Further measures to support Irish consumers, including targeted schemes, will be considered as part of the work programme of the national energy affordability task force. A key output of this task force will be to develop an energy affordability action plan that will identify a comprehensive range of solutions, including demand-side solutions for households to allow them to adjust their energy demand and avail of low cost renewable energy.

Task force members are currently finalising the preparation of an interim report, which will set out measures for consideration as part of the budget process next month. I understand that the Minister, Darragh O’Brien, has engaged with all energy suppliers to gain an understanding of support measures they may introduce for households this winter. A number of meetings have also been scheduled for the coming weeks for the Minister to discuss these matters directly with energy supply companies.

The Government will continue to make the critical investments necessary to achieve a just energy and climate transition, as affirmed in the programme for Government. However, we are also acutely aware of the impact high energy costs have on Irish households and the Government is committed to providing effective and practical supports for those struggling with these costs. Supporting the most vulnerable in society must remain a priority and the Government is committed to doing so in budget 2026 and beyond.

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