Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I want to raise the Electricity Costs (Domestic Electricity Accounts) Emergency Measures Bill which the President signed into the law at the weekend. I have no doubt that the money off electricity bills will be welcomed by many people across the country who are struggling with their energy costs. However, during the Committee Stage debate on the Bill I flagged my concern that the Government was planning to use funds allocated for energy poverty retrofits for the electricity credit. Today at the Oireachtas Select Committee on Environment and Climate Action, it emerged that the Better Energy Communities, BEC, scheme's budget is being slashed by €19 million, a 30% cut, in order to pay for the €200 electricity credit. It is deeply frustrating that €19 million is being taken from energy poverty retrofits when as much as €26 million is funding electricity credits for holiday homes and vacant properties.

I tabled very practical amendments to the Electricity Costs (Domestic Electricity Accounts) Emergency Measures Bill that would have prevented energy poverty alleviation funds from being misused like this but they were defeated. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications was categorical in his response when he said that funding for the credit would not come out of energy poverty measures but it now appears that the Minister misled the Seanad. I would like to invite him back to correct the record.

More needs to be done to get a handle on the crisis but it has to be done in a progressive way. The Minister is plundering the budgets of schemes that are designed to help the most vulnerable while energy companies are recording record profits. I would prefer to see the Government taxing the windfall profits of energy companies and reinvesting the revenue in measures that would help people in energy poverty with renovations and develop renewable electricity. I call on the Leader to write to the Minister to ask him to correct the statement in which he categorically denied that a cut was going to be made to the energy poverty retrofit scheme.