Paul McAuliffe (Dublin North-West, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Bill before the House. While it includes technical measures to increase the actual borrowing limit for the ESB and to provide for additional share capital to be issued, in essence it is about making an additional investment in our electricity supply. This is incredibly important in an Ireland that is growing and will have additional demands in the future. Even in today's market, there are communities in my district that are experiencing difficulties because of issues with electricity supply capacity, with appliances being damaged in their homes and so on. I welcome the additional investment.

I also welcome the investment in the provision of interconnectors, particularly the North-South Interconnector. The investments here will be an important tool in order to deliver that. The interconnectors are really key because while they increase Ireland's electricity security, they also give us an opportunity to export renewable energy, an area where I believe we are going to be world leaders. We have already made great strides. The passing of the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021, which the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, and I soldiered on at the committee, is having an impact but we need to do more and the Government needs to do more.

The provision of renewable energy is something that we could see being implemented very quickly now. One of the issues with the renewable energy system, particularly wind energy, relates to surplus wind energy that happens at night. When energy is not able to be used by the grid, it is effectively earthed into the ground. This is the reason I brought forward the Energy Poverty Reduction (Use of Surplus Renewable Energy) Bill 2025. The idea is that we come up with a national strategy for that surplus energy. Energy that is otherwise being wasted or earthed into the ground every evening could be a digital or virtual district heating system right across the country. It could be heating the hot water tanks of many people across the country. It could be charging electric car batteries and so on. Having a national strategy for surplus wind energy is really key. I urge the Government to consider my Bill and to put every effort into bringing forward a strategy in this respect. I know the Ministers are supportive of it and I look forward to progress on this. The idea is that we can use surplus wind energy to tackle fuel poverty.

The work we have done includes the fuel supplement scheme, which has been massively expanded. If I am right, I think I heard a Minister say this morning that 26% of homes now are included under the fuel supplement scheme. That happened because we significantly expanded eligibility for people over the age of 70. These are people who worked hard all their lives, who bought their home and who own their home. They are now eligible for the fuel supplement. This also makes them eligible for the better energy warmer homes scheme, which allows them to get a full wraparound insulation system. This has a massive impact on their energy bills. There is a lot of connectivity between the different schemes we currently have. The measures in this Bill add to the overall investment.

With regard to the budget, there were targeted measures and there were general measures, as there have been in past budgets. The Opposition criticised us for not introducing more targeted measures in previous budgets but they seem to have forgotten that this time around when we made more targeted decisions. The 9% VAT rate was really key in keeping energy prices low. If that not had been done, people right across the country would have been paying significantly more for their ESB bills. That is really important but it does nothing to address the issue around energy prices. Energy prices in Ireland are too high. There are lots of reasons for that, some of them structural and some of them to do with our connectivity to the rest of Europe and so on. We have to make sure the energy companies know that their feet are being held to the fire on the issue of price.

I agree with other speakers about the CRU. It needs to do more to make sure consumers are getting the lowest possible price, given the mandate of the CRU. It is incredibly important. When people in our constituency offices say they are afraid to turn their heating on because they are not sure what the impact will be, or when people on a pay-as-you-go scheme cannot shop around to avail of different providers, we know how important the issue of energy prices is. While I welcome the Government's measures on the 9% VAT rate, which is really important, and on the fuel poverty schemes, I believe we need to do more on energy prices. I welcome the Bill.

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