Mark Duffy (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for being in the House this afternoon for this important motion. I also thank Fianna Fáil for tabling the motion.

There is no doubt that people across the country are feeling the pinch and are under pronounced pressure. That situation came to boil over the past number of weeks. It is worth reiterating that like the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russia, another external factor in Iran has caused huge upheaval in fuel prices and other energy costs, which has affected agricultural contractors, hauliers, anyone who works in the transport industry and, indeed, individual households. People are feeling the pressure but the Government has responded substantially with the intervention that was made either side of Easter. As has been outlined, the intervention was made in a reactionary way to respond to a real and existential crisis that many operators faced because of the pressures of price hikes. There must be an immediate response, which there has been with a further detail announced today across the agriculture and transport sectors. We also need to make sure that we take the long-term view to be more energy independent ourselves through the harnessing of our natural resources, be that wind, more gas reserves off the coast of County Mayo, where I am from, where there is untapped potential in the Inishkea fields or be it supporting homeowners individually, like has been done, by targeting the most vulnerable who are in receipt of a fuel allowance to a 100% retrofit of their homes. It is a substantial scheme that is helping the most vulnerable.

We are all in politics and we all knock on doors. We often see different types of living standards. Some people are really under a lot of pressure and are in need of support. The full retrofit of homes is an incredibly positive scheme. It has led to a marked improvement in reducing costs for people and improving air quality in homes. That scheme needs to be broadened as much as possible.

The deregulation of solar energy over the past number of years has led to very positive improvements along with measures like the EnergyCloud, which gives people a tank of hot water overnight. When there is an oversupply of electricity that the grid cannot take, EnergyCloud can kick in. This is a good example. A total of €450 million a year is wasted on unused energy because the grid cannot handle it.It is something that we need to consider strategically, to make sure that we have storage capture ability for our towns and villages in order that we can benefit from that wasted energy. The State should consider this and ensure that we have reduced costs and more independence at times of crisis. Just last year during Storm Éowyn we saw our vulnerabilities, with power outages going on for weeks in some cases. We need to think in the short term about immediate supports to keep the economy moving and the supply chains undisrupted and unaffected as much as possible. We also need to allow these moments to reiterate the critical need for improvement in our grid infrastructure and the critical importance of having strong renewable energy projects that benefit local communities and the country, backed up by gas reserves. In Ireland we import 80% of our gas and have limited storage beyond a couple of days. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, discussed this in the House earlier today. They spoke about broadening that up to around 90 days of storage, which would be very important because we are importing 80% of our gas, with only 20% coming from the Corrib gas field off the coast of Mayo. There is huge potential there to do more and to give us more of the independence that we need. We need to mitigate the vulnerabilities that are there at the moment. When we see dictators and aggressors weaponising energy and using it to threaten and undermine other states, it reiterates the importance of us as an island nation making sure that we can stand on our own two feet as much as possible. Finally, in terms of supports for individual homeowners who are feeling the pressure, we need to do everything we can, whether that is extending the fuel allowance or supporting full energy retrofits and upgrades. The latter can make a marked difference in decarbonising the economy and reducing bills for those most affected.