Martin Conway (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I very much welcome the announcement by the Minister for Finance on the extension of the temporary business energy support scheme. It has helped thousands of businesses in rural and urban parts of the country to deal with the exorbitant cost of energy. There is one flaw when it comes to businesses in rural areas that use gas and that are not on a mains or metered. Those on metered gas qualify for the TBESS. Those who do not have metered gas do not qualify. This is a clear example of discrimination between urban and rural. This was brought to my attention in recent days by a busy business in County Clare. It tried to apply for TBESS but was told it did not qualify because it was not a business with metered gas. This is an anomaly. I am sure it was an oversight but it is a discriminative situation. In comparison with urban areas, rural Ireland is being discriminated against in the context of TBESS. Imagine a situation where people who needed unemployment assistance could only get it if they lived in the city and those who lived in rural Ireland could not get it. This is the same thing. This is a system to support businesses to stay in business during the energy crisis.The scheme should be altered to include businesses that use gas tanks or bulk tanks to support the supply of energy to their businesses. It can be done and it can be verified. People can get their gas bills from last year and submit them to show the difference in the same way one can do with electricity bills. I appeal to the Leader to contact the Minister for Finance, to rectify this anomaly as soon as possible.