Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will raise a topic I have raised previously, namely, that of members of the Traveller community receiving the electricity credit rebate. While we disagree with going down the road of giving credits again, if that is the route the Government is going to take to support families with their energy bills, then we have to make sure that we learn from the mistakes made in respect of the previous credit. This was where Travellers who live on halting sites, including that in the Owendoher Haven in Tallaght, did not receive the electricity credit because they have a single meter point reference number, MPRN, that all the halting bays log into. In some cases, the local authority did not pass on the €200 credit, while in others it divided it among the number of households on the halting site. In some instances, households got €7 instead of €200 in respect of the credit rebate.

We have raised this matter with the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, on numerous occasions, and with other Ministers at both the select committee and today's meeting of the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities stated it was aware of the situation but it needs the Government to act to make sure we do not repeat the mistake. I would also like confirmation of that. Some €20 million of that household credit scheme was underspent and was used to buy emergency power generation, instead of retrospectively paying those Traveller households we know about that did not receive the €200 rebate.

I would like to hear that we are learning from the mistakes of the past, that Travellers will not be excluded from this payment, and that they will also receive an apology and retrospective payment to make sure they receive the same as every other household in the country.