Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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77. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the reforms he is considering to the energy market in order to reduce high energy costs; the way in which the work of the NEAT task force is different from the energy poverty steering group; the timeline for publication of the interim and final reports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60266/25]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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I ask the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment about the reforms to the energy market he is considering to reduce high energy costs. An interim report from the national energy affordability task force was published earlier this week. It was a disappointment to many because it identifies some of the well-known problems in Ireland's dysfunctional energy market but offers no solutions. Households are facing a fresh round of price hikes just as the Government rips away supports. They need action. This seems to be a tick-box exercise to distract from the fact that there is no intention to tackle the energy rip-off.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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Deputy Ahern should not really have given way.

I thank Deputy Daly. First, this is an interim report. It outlines a lot of actions that are to be taken. Many have been taken. It was published in advance of the budget so that we could look at the short-term measures we could take. We acknowledge the increased energy cost pressures on businesses and households and commit to bringing forward measures to contain energy costs and, importantly, to also tackle energy poverty.

We have already acted on that commitment. The 9% VAT currently applied to electricity and gas has been extended to 2030, resulting in a saving of approximately €100 per annum for the average household. The fuel allowance has been increased to €38 per week from January 2026. That equates to an increase of more than 15% and will provide an additional €140 to over 460,000 households during the annual fuel allowance season. As the Deputy may know, eligibility for the payment has been expanded to include those in receipt of the working family payment, approximately 50,000 extra households. These are targeted support measures.

The budget provided a record capital allocation of €558 million for the SEAI. That is for its retrofitting programme and energy upgrades including solar PV. It supports the delivery of our national retrofit programme, which has retrofitted nearly 260,000 homes already. That is a permanent measure. It is an €89 million increase on last year's budget allocation. That means more funding than ever is now available to make homes warmer, healthier, more comfortable and less expensive to heat. These are permanent changes. Analysis carried out by my Department and the SEAI indicates that a household can save between €750 and €1,120 per annum by making changes to their house through the retrofit programme.

I recently met with the four largest energy suppliers and, following these constructive meetings, the suppliers committed to ensuring that hardship funds and focused measures will now be in place for any customers who find themselves in difficulty this winter.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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One of the frustrating things about the report from the steering group is that it is just an interim report. We have been told there will be a roadmap. If you were to be cynical, you would say that we first had a report and will now have a roadmap that will not be published until some time in 2026. It is really the destination that we are looking for. The report reaffirms what we have been saying for a long time, which is that no more than lip service is being paid to the crisis and that, because the energy credits were ripped away, energy bills are set to soar.

The Minister mentioned energy bills. According to the report, energy bills will reach €1,900 with a real risk they will rise again, given what we saw over the summer. Our energy prices are already some of the highest in Europe. Net electricity prices are the highest while gas prices are the fifth highest. Households pay, on average, €350 per year more for electricity and €150 more for gas. There has been a spate of price hikes across the summer. Will the Government consider reintroducing the supports?

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I have detailed some of the initial supports, which are targeted at households that need them. The retrofit programme is critical in helping us to decarbonise and making permanent savings for households and businesses. That programme will ratchet up even further. We established a task force in June this year. I always said there would be an interim report in advance of the budget to inform budgetary measures for this year.

That is not all of the work required. Energy prices are too high. There are reasons for that in Ireland. We are an islanded nation with a dispersed population. We need to invest further in our grid, which we discussed last night during the debate on the ESB Bill. We need to continue to expand renewables to have cheaper, greener energy in our system. We are doing well on that. About 42% of our electricity generation last year was through renewables but we need to expand that further, and indeed we will.

I will look at the structure of the network charges. There is a conversation in Europe on the spark gap and the fact we tag retail prices across Europe to the wholesale gas price, even though we are expanding our renewables. That is a European conversation because energy costs across Europe are a real issue for households and businesses. We are committing to doing everything we can to stabilise and bring prices down.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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I am glad the Minister mentioned the discussion he is having with the energy companies. Many of them say they had to put up prices due to the network charges, but network charges only rose by about €29 this year. At a recent meeting of the climate committee, the justification for the price hikes by, for example, Energia came under scrutiny. There are concerns that these are being used as an excuse but we in Sinn Féin introduced legislation to enable the Government to hold energy companies to account and it was rejected by the Government. There is no point in sitting down with energy companies, who not only have to make profit this year, but have to make increased profit next year and the year after that, without proper structures to hold them to account and challenge their narrative that it is all due to the war in Ukraine or to network charges. They should be held to account and have to justify their price increases year on year and month after month.

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I think we agree this is an issue. I know this is an issue and the Government is aware this is an issue. We have already taken measures, which I outlined in my initial response, but we have to go further.

Work is happening at an EU-wide level. We have to look at the electricity market design and the Regulation on Wholesale Energy Market Integrity and Transparency. They are matters I have raised at European Council meetings. There are discussions at European level.

We need to expand renewables and ensure the households that need assistance get it. Energy credits could not be sustained into the future. Supports worth €3.5 billion were given. I would rather invest that money in structural reforms. We are putting that €3.5 billion into equity in ESB and EirGrid to enable them to leverage to invest further in our grid and deliver projects like the North-South interconnector, which is absolutely needed for resilience and to drive down energy prices in this country. We need that investment in our grid but I assure the Deputy that those who need assistance will get it. I have met the energy companies directly. A number, like Electric Ireland and Yuno Energy, did not put up their prices but they have re-established the hardship funds at my request to assist households that need assistance most.