Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State. There is a touch of the Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown chamber about this Chamber today in that I, the Minister of State and Senator Boyhan were all members of the same chamber at the same time. We are now dealing with national legislation and I certainly support this Bill, as does Fianna Fáil, and I am a member of the governing arrangement, along with the Green Party and Fine Gael. The Minister of State has outlined very clearly in a very comprehensive speech all of the technical matters and briefings but there are a couple of things are important to acknowledge.

It is €125 twice in the billing cycles of November-December and January-February and you do not have to apply for it. Councillor Jim Gildea, whom the Minister of State would also know, has put up on his Facebook page that people are sending texts around stating you must click on a link and apply. You do not have to do any of that. It is important we let people know it will be applied automatically to domestic electricity bills and that, while there are provisions for prepay bills and for the Traveller community, the ordinary bill-paying electricity customers, who are the vast bulk - about 2.263 million accounts - do not have to do anything. The Minister of State perhaps might confirm that in his concluding remarks.

I am also very conscious the legislation must be enacted not later than Friday, 11 October, which is tomorrow. Otherwise we do not have it in in time for the billing payments. I am not going to delay this legislation.

It is, of course, a consequence of Russia's illegal and brutal war in Ukraine that has driven up energy prices and is something the Government has taken upon itself. As a Government Senator, I am delighted to try to mitigate these things. If we did not have that war in Ukraine, we would not have the energy crisis we have and have had since that invasion, which at this stage is more than two and a half years old and heading for three years. The measure impacts on and is of benefit to households, particularly in winter time when energy costs are higher and around Christmas time when people have a great deal of outgoings. It is a very welcome measure that is costing in the region of €545 million, and probably a little bit less than that net of VAT, but it is still a very welcome measure.

It is nice because sometimes legislation is brought in in terrible circumstances. We do something that is not very nice but we have to do it. This, however, is all good and very positive news. I thank the Minister of State and his Department, and indeed the Minister, Deputy Ryan, in the same Department, for all the work he and his officials have done. It is positive. We must enact it by 11 October - tomorrow - so I will not delay it any further. I thank all very much but just again to point out to people who may be looking in and to journalists who are watching that you do not need to do anything. If you are an ordinary domestic bill-paying customer, you do not need to do anything. It will be applied to your bill automatically.