Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The issue I raise is the lack of an energy poverty strategy given that the previous one lapsed in 2019. We also still do not have a review of the previous strategy's implementation, as promised to us last year, to determine whether it actually did anything. We do not have the review of the implementation and we do not have a new energy poverty strategy.

I am calling on the Government, yet again, to expedite the strategy as a matter of urgency. I ask the Minister of State for an update on it. I welcome the renewed call by the older persons' charity, Age Action, for a Government energy poverty strategy. A new strategy should have preceded the retrofit plan announced yesterday, or they at least should have gone hand in hand to ensure the retrofit plan was informed by the energy poverty strategy. Likewise, we were promised Central Statistics Office, CSO, indicators to ensure retrofitting was actually reducing energy poverty as well as increasing energy efficiency. However, we have yet to see the CSO indicators for that either. This was on the back of a Department of Public Expenditure and Reform report in 2020 which found insufficient data has been collected on demographics to conduct a social impact assessment on its energy poverty schemes, which include retrofitting. While we know that energy efficiency upgrades are a key part of the strategy to tackle energy poverty, the retrofit plan announced yesterday still seems to fall short of making the upgrades attainable for those on low incomes. It is absolutely critical that we get those CSO indicators so that the retrofit plan and the energy poverty strategy are targeted at those who most need it.

Retrofits are important for bringing down our emissions but they also have to reduce energy poverty. As announced yesterday, the deeper retrofit will still cost €25,000 on top the grant. That is not attainable for many families. Those who are already at the pin of their collar will not consider getting a loan. The cruelty is that they may never be eligible for a retrofit scheme but they will always be liable for the carbon tax. Under the measures announced yesterday, those who are wealthy will be able to benefit from taxpayers' money by getting massive grants. Effectively, we are transferring a huge amount of wealth to those we do not need it.

I am sure that onlookers had high hopes because we were promised a socially progressive retrofit programme, but what we heard yesterday did not meet that bar. If it not based on evidence through CSO indicators and a review of the implementation of the energy poverty strategy, the programme will not achieve its aims.

As regards short-term solutions, I would like to hear the Minister of State address energy poverty. My colleague in the Dáil, Deputy Claire Kerrane, put forward a proposal for a discretionary fund a year ago. At the time, the Tánaiste said the would take this proposal on board and look at it, yet it has not happened. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has been calling for this for a long time.

I also raise the issue of reforming the public service obligation, PSO, a regressive tax that subsidises renewable energies. The PSO does not take ability to pay into account. The way it is currently designed means that households are subsidising large energy users, such as data centres and pharmaceutical companies, because it based on a peak demand rather than a steady demand. We know that data centres have a steady demand and, as such, once again, it is households that are subsidising the big energy users.

I ask the Minister of State to provide an update on the energy poverty strategy, the CSO indicators and the report of the review of the implementation of the energy poverty strategy that lapsed in 2019.