John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Similar to my comments on this last year when it comes to energy credits, we have been very honest with the people at every stage over the past two to three years when it comes to the cost-of-living crisis. We have not been able to protect everybody from every pricing fluctuation, level of inflation and from competing costs. We have been honest that we cannot protect everyone from that. What we can do, however, is to try to insulate people as best as possible from price volatility and fluctuations. We are doing that in many ways but, in particular and specifically, we are doing that when it comes to electricity credits because we are getting money straight into people's bank accounts and straight off their electricity bills. This is the third year in a row we are doing that. It is very useful. I have seen myself where it is cutting costs for people and it is all part of a wide scheme of cost-of-living issues where we are trying, as a Government, to give people that bit of financial space. We are trying to put as much money as possible back into people's pockets and we are doing that, in particular, with these electricity credits. I am very glad to see how quickly this has gone through the Dáil and is going through this House because, at the end of day, it is about getting this legislation passed as quickly as possible and getting that financial aid to people. We will see what we can do from there.

The issue of universality has been mentioned over recent years by the Opposition and others in that we are giving credits to people who perhaps do not need them. The concept of this is speed and getting it done as quickly as possible to get that money off people's electricity bills during the winter months when it is needed. If we were to bring universality into this and to start picking between different houses based on means, it becomes much more cumbersome and more difficult to get money out to people who need it. Perhaps the next time, if we or the next Government continues with this, we can introduce some sort of a clawback measure where those who feel they do not want the €200 electricity credit can simply refund it to the State and taxpayer, and it could then be redirected in the form of greater credits to people in financial or fuel poverty who could do with it more. Perhaps people like that might like to give that money back to the State rather than complaining about how they do not need it.