Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. Anything that helps people in a cost-of-living crisis has to be welcomed.

It is interesting that this Bill incorporates some of the amendments Sinn Féin tabled to last year's scheme. It is a pity - and it is always the case in this House - that when the Opposition comes forward with proposals, they are blankly refused and rejected rather than the Government working with the Opposition when the proposals are good, valid and coming from a constructive place. I am talking about the provisions to exclude low usage accounts that likely correlated with vacant and holiday homes. By excluding vacant and holiday homes, the Government would have ensured, as it is now doing, that the credit is not lavished on people who do not need it. They clearly do not need it if they have holiday homes or properties that are lying vacant. According to the note we got at the committee, the Minister believes this will save up to €40 million, which means it would have saved even more last year because there were more electricity credits. It is disappointing that it was rejected last year when Sinn Féin was trying to design a more targeted electricity credit scheme. The Government dismissed it. While I appreciate that the Government has now recognised the benefit of that policy, it is disappointing because more than €40 million could have been saved and instead of cutting bills of homeowners could have been targeted to create more measures and supports for those who really need them.

The proposed mechanism for excluding households was rooted, as the Minister of State will be aware, in crucial data obtained from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, release of metered electricity consumption which revealed a compelling case for excluding vacant properties. The CSO found that it was possible to identify vacant houses and holiday homes based on low electricity usage. It demonstrated that approximately 10% of residential customers consumed less than 1,000 kw hours in 2020 in stark contrast with the median consumption of 3,658 kW hours. Our proposal was to exclude the houses that could be identified as low demand users.

It is also interesting that the Minister has also adopted our suggestion to ensure that those on submeters receive the electricity credit. Again, Sinn Féin brought forward an amendment on that this time last year. Many ordinary workers and families did not benefit from the credits. This means that a continued strain was placed on ordinary workers and households who live in properties where more than one domestic account holder was connected to a meter for a whole year longer than necessary. The Opposition comes forward with constructive proposals. This is not personal to the Minister of State, but I encourage the Government to work with the Opposition when we bring forward such proposals rather than having a blanket policy of rejecting everything that comes from this side of the House.

Sinn Féin would have preferred to have seen a cap on electricity bills, but we recognise that the electricity credits will bring relief to households. Therefore, as we move through the Stages today, we will seek to amend rather than reject the Bill outright.We also take the opportunity to say that we all know where we want to go, and the best way for reducing bills for households is to make that renewable energy transition happen. It is deeply disappointing that this week alone, Gas Networks Ireland confirmed to me it is going to continue to connect 11 data centres to the gas grid. Not only does that clearly have an impact on our climate targets on our emissions because we are locking these data centres into gas, but we know that greater gas demand means households are more likely to pay more expensive electricity because we are using up that electricity rather than renewable electricity. It is, therefore, deeply disappointing that the amendments were not accepted last year but, as I said, we are happy to see them now in this current iteration of the Bill. We hope the Minister of State will maybe listen to the amendments we have this time around and work constructively with us.