Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)

I will come back in regarding a number of matters. One relates to what the Minister said about PR 6. While I appreciate that what was published during the summer is a draft decision, that is all we have to go on at the moment. We do not fully know what will be there but under the CRU's draft decision, households and SMEs will see their electricity network charges increase, while large energy users, such as data centres, will see reductions of up to 18%. It also stated that the grid upgrades are being driven in part by growing electricity demands from the same data centres, whose usage has increased by 400% since 2015. In effect, the entities that are driving the increased need for grid investment will be asked to contribute less while the public pays more.

Amendment No. 2, which the Minister dealt with, involves direct State investment, or money that is taken from the State coffers, in order to finance improvements that are needed. While there is overlap between the two amendments, this is more important because it relates to the investment from the Central Fund. As noted by the Oireachtas Library and Research Service, the Bill as drafted provides for the relevant authorisation of funds totalling €1.5 billion. There is no other mechanism to ensure Oireachtas oversight or control of the use of money from the Central Fund for the purchase of capital stock.

Our amendment deals with a prioritisation framework, which has been done in other countries, notably, the Netherlands. It will include security, which includes hospitals, Garda stations, water safety and wastewater treatment because it is important the structures are put in place. There has been a lot of talk recently about wastewater treatment systems around the State, or the lack of them. It is also about housing, where people who have made agreements to go into their homes have not been able to do so because the connections have not been there. It also prioritises the basic needs of residential construction and exceptional cases of public interest, as I mentioned, which also relate to the previous amendment.

The amendment also states:

(10) The Board shall, within 6 months of the commencement of this Act and annually thereafter, lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report detailing: (a) the purposes for which the payment was applied [so necessary oversight] including a breakdown of project type;

(b) the purposes for which the pay will be applied in the next year including a breakdown of project type;

(c) the impact [if any] on consumer electricity prices; the report shall be subject to review by the Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Energy and the Environment and the Oireachtas Committee of Public Accounts.

(11) The Board will ensure that any borrowing under this Act does not result in an increase in domestic electricity tariffs beyond inflationary adjustments, and shall publish an annual statement confirming compliance to be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas.”.”.

While we agree with the need for more borrowing and we agree that there should be more investment in the grid, this should be done with some safeguards in place because we do not believe that they have been in place. The priorities are not there and there should be a prioritisation framework. Amendment No. 2 addresses this issue in the Bill. I accept that the committee agreed to waive pre-legislative scrutiny even though there was opposition to that. It is now ten months since Storm Éowyn took place and it was a bit rich of the Government to come in to say that it needed to do it all in a hurry when the Bill was not published until the middle of the summer. We are now being pushed into a corner with the suggestion that there is a panic that we have to do it all in a hurry. We should be getting it right before we agree to all of the legislation without what we feel are necessary amendments.

Due to the constraints on the grid, there has been a history of failing to plan properly and treating affordability as an afterthought. Since June, there have been a series of energy bill hikes from various companies. One even increased its bills on two occasions. The corporate balance sheet certainly seems to have been the priority. Checks and balances need to be put in place particularly through the provisions of amendment No. 2 where we feel that public investment should be delivering for the public good. I know that the €1.5 billion was announced in the revised NDP in July. When it was announced, the Government said that it would be targeted at expanding onshore and offshore capacity and the distribution network infrastructure. Our amendments, particularly amendment No. 2, seek to ensure that this is the case and that past mistakes are not repeated.

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