Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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The proposer and seconder of the motion will speak for a combined total of 16 minutes. All other Senators will speak for six minutes, the Minister of State will speak for 15 minutes and the proposer will respond at the end for five minutes.

Pat Casey (Fianna Fail)
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I move:

"That Seanad Éireann:

notes: - the publication of the Annual Progress Report (April 2026), incorporating the Department of Finance’s Spring Forecasts, in accordance with Ireland’s obligations under the revised EU fiscal framework;

- that the Report highlights the resilience of the Irish economy in the face of significant global volatility, while identifying increased risks arising from geopolitical conflict and disruption to global energy markets;

- the Report’s assessment that Ireland remains close to full employment, with continued growth in employment and a declining general government debt ratio;

- the evidence within the Report that rising energy prices are placing upward pressure on inflation, reducing household purchasing power and increasing cost pressures for businesses;

- that Ireland, as a net importer of energy, is particularly exposed to external energy shocks transmitted through global price movements;

- the identification in the Report of continued risks to the economic and fiscal outlook, including energy price volatility, geopolitical instability and global trade fragmentation; recognises: - that prudent fiscal management in recent years has placed Ireland in a strong position to respond to external shocks;

- that the Government’s economic strategy is based on maintaining fiscal sustainability while protecting households, employment and competitiveness during periods of exceptional disruption;

- the importance of continuing to build fiscal buffers while avoiding procyclical policy responses;

- the need to balance short-term economic supports with longer-term objectives on climate action, energy security and intergenerational equity; welcomes: - the clear, decisive and proactive leadership shown by Government in responding to the sharp escalation in global energy prices, as recognised in the Annual Progress Report, through the deployment of targeted and temporary support measures;

- the new and comprehensive package of fuel supports agreed by Government in April 2026 valued at over €750m, including:

- further temporary reductions in excise duty on petrol, diesel and marked gas oil;

- the deferral of the planned increase in carbon tax to protect households and businesses during a period of acute energy price pressure;

- the establishment of the Road Transporters Support Scheme, providing direct and meaningful support for the haulage and coach sectors;

- targeted fuel subsidy measures for the agriculture and fisheries sectors, recognising their particular exposure to energy costs;

- the focus of these measures on providing immediate relief to households and businesses facing exceptional cost pressures;

- the continued prioritisation of strategic capital investment, infrastructure delivery and structural reform, as set out in the Annual Progress Report;

- the strong emphasis placed on enhancing Ireland’s energy security and resilience, including through accelerated investment in renewable energy and reduced reliance on imported fossil fuels; calls on the Government to: - continue to closely monitor economic and energy market developments and respond, where necessary, in a timely and targeted manner;

- ensure the effective implementation and oversight of the fuel support measures announced in April 2026;

- progress the mediumterm reform and investment priorities set out in the Annual Progress Report and the MediumTerm Fiscal and Structural Plan;

- accelerate measures to enhance energy security and resilience, including investment in renewable energy and critical infrastructure;

- and report, as appropriate, to the Houses of the Oireachtas on economic developments and the effectiveness of measures introduced in response to energy price shocks."

Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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I second the motion.

Pat Casey (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. In this motion I will address the Government's response to the recent escalation in energy prices in a clear, measured and practical manner, grounded in the economic evidence and in the lived experience of families and businesses across the country. While reports and statistics matter, what really matters to people is how decisions taken here affect their daily lives, whether families can manage bills and small businesses can stay viable, and whether people feel that the system understands the pressure they are under. Let me be clear: no one is denying that the pressure exists. People know it every time they fill their car with fuel, open an electricity bill or stand at a supermarket checkout. The question is whether Government responds in a way that actually helps, without creating bigger problems down the line.

The starting point is that Ireland is in a strong position to respond. We now have over 2.8 million people at work, which is the highest level of employment in the history of the State. Unemployment has been below 5% for four years. This means that more households have incomes and more people have security in their jobs. The public finances are also strong. Last year, the State ran a surplus, and debt levels have continued to fall. This matters because it gives us the room to act when something goes wrong, which is exactly what responsible budgeting and governing is meant to do. However, economic strength at a national level does not lessen the day-to-day pressures families are facing. Ireland imports most of its energy. When oil and gas prices rise globally because of a conflict or instability abroad, those increases hit here quickly and directly. There is no buffer and whether someone lives in the city or the countryside, energy costs go up for everyone. For families, that pressure shows up immediately in higher home heating bills, higher electricity bills, higher costs to get to work and school and higher childcare costs. In rural areas especially, where people rely on cars, rising fuel prices hit hard and fast. People feel it in the weekly shop where prices remain high. They feel it in insurance costs, mortgages and everyday expenses that have steadily crept up over recent years. Even when inflation has eased prices have not fallen back and households are still carrying that load.

Middle-income families are often the most squeezed. They may be working full time and paying their way but they do not qualify for many supports and they do not have the spare money to absorb sudden increases. For lower income households, energy costs take up a much bigger share of income, leaving no room at all when prices increase. That is the reality people are living with and to which the Government has to respond. That is why the €750 million package to address rising fuel prices is the right response. Temporary reductions in excise duty on petrol, diesel and marked gas oil are not abstract measures; they provide immediate, visible relief at the pumps. People see the difference straight away when they fill up and that matters for families, commuters and workers who depend on their cars. In practical terms, these measures have reduced the price of petrol by 27 cent a litre, diesel by 32 cent a litre and marked gas oil or green diesel by 7.4 cent a litre, delivering real savings for households, rural drivers, farmers and small businesses. At the same time, to protect those most at risk of fuel poverty, the Government has extended the fuel allowance season by four weeks. This will provide an additional €152 to each of nearly 470,000 recipients, supporting over a quarter of households and helping ease pressure on home energy costs.

I also strongly support the decision to temporarily defer the planned increase in the carbon tax. Climate action remains essential and nothing in this decision changes that, but climate policy has to be workable and fair. Adding extra costs to households and small businesses in the middle of an international energy shock would not be sensible. It would have pushed people too far, too fast.

Support for the road transport sector is also essential. That is why the Government has committed €150 million in targeted assistance, with the detailed operation of the scheme announced today. HGV drivers, hauliers and coach operators are not some separate group. They carry our food, deliver our fuel and keep our economy running. Fuel is one of their largest and most volatile costs. If those costs rise sharply and Government does nothing, they do not disappear. They feed straight through into higher prices across the economy. Supporting the transport sector is not about picking favourites; it is about preventing inflationary measures from cascading into household costs.

The same approach applies to agriculture and fisheries. The Government has provided €100 million in targeted supports for farmers and fishers, with full details also confirmed today. It is important to recognise these sectors, which cannot easily pass on rising costs yet are fundamental to local employment, our food security and our rural communities.It is important to be clear about what these measures are intended to do and what they are not. They are not permanent giveaways. They are not reckless spending sprees. They are temporary, targeted interventions designed to deal with a specific shock. They are affordable because public finances have been managed carefully. Even after these measures, debt levels remain on a downward path and long-term savings for future needs are still being accumulated through the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund. That means we can support families today in a responsible way without passing on a burden of debt or instability to our children in the years ahead.

Of course, short-terms supports are only part of the solution. The real and lasting way of protecting families from future energy shocks is to reduce our dependency on imported fossil fuels. That is why the Government is continuing to invest heavily in energy security, renewable regeneration and the electrical network. It is so that Ireland is less exposed when international prices spike for reasons entirely outside of the Government's control.

In my own county of Wicklow, that transition is not abstract policy ambition. It is already taking practical shape. Projects such as SSE Renewables and Codling offshore wind developments off Wicklow's coast show what energy security looks like in real terms. These are long-term investments that can deliver clean domestically generated electricity at scale, strengthening the national grid and reducing the vulnerability of households and businesses to unsustainable global fuel markets. This is how we move from reacting to energy shocks to building resilience against them through sustained planned investment that lowers costs over time and gives families greater security about their future.

The position is clear. Ireland continues to benefit from a strong economy and well-managed sustainable public finances. At the same time, families and businesses are under real pressure from rising costs driven by global events entirely outside of our control. The Government has responded in a timely and responsible way, providing targeted relief where it is needed, easing immediate pressure on household budgets, and doing so without undermining fiscal discipline our long-term economic and climate goals. This is not about a headline-grabbing measure or short-term gestures. It is about steady considered governing, recognising the strain that families are under, particularly in meeting everyday costs such as fuel, heating and transport, and acting to ensure that a temporary shock does not become a lasting hardship. For families trying to balance the weekly household budget, that approach matters. It reflects an effort that responds carefully, fairly and in the best interests of all those we represent.

For those reasons, I commend the motion.

Dee Ryan (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome the Minister of State to the Chamber. I echo the sentiments that were so eloquently delivered by my colleague Senator Casey recognising the significant suite of measures the Government has brought forward in response to the unforeseen and outside-of-our-control war instigated by America and Israel on Iran and the knock-on impact that is having around the world, and particularly here in Ireland, on the cost of energy and, in the first instance, fuel.

If the fuel protests and the blockades were instructive in anything, it is that the Irish public is triggered. We are recalling the reverberations of the illegal war in Ukraine that the Russians instigated in 2022 and the knock-on cost inflation, the knock-on impact in all of our pockets and the stress that it brought to all of our lives.

While it is important to acknowledge the suite of measures that Senator Casey has outlined and to acknowledge the particular struggles of those on lower incomes and pensions that the Government strove to address in budget 2026, including improvements to the working family payment, extension of the fuel allowance season, increase in the pension, and the expansion of the free school books scheme and school meals programme, I will use the my time implore of the Minister of State in advance of budget negotiations this year, and in the ongoing monitoring that his Department and our senior colleague are doing of the situation as it unfolds, to put working families to the forefront of their minds. These are families who may not qualify for social welfare supports but are under intense pressure raising children and trying to keep the lights on and food on the table.

The impact on parents is exponential and it is felt across everyday costs such as school shoes, uniforms, jackets, schoolbooks, hair cuts, sports gear, activities fees, voluntary school contributions, transition year school fees, the cost of taking children to school where parents cannot get them on a school bus or there is not a school bus route in their area, school-mandated digital devices, third-level costs including the now-reduced but still substantial fees, transport, accommodation and student living expenses, teenage clothing and lifestyle expectations. Thank God for Vinted. All of those pressures exist for the average family in Ireland today alongside the rise in the basic cost of living such as grocery bills, electricity bills, fuel and transport costs. Parents are racing from pillar to post working very hard to bring in the income to cover what feel like everyday bills and everyday bills are growing. We have to deliver further supports for working families in our upcoming budget.

I will use my time to propose five targeted interventions that we could look at, and I would ask the Minister of State to look at, to support ordinary families with school children and those with third-level students that they are supporting. We have to look at the reintroduction of energy credits if we face into another winter with soaring energy costs.

We must consider double child benefit payments. The two peak costly times for any working family are pre-back-to-school in August and the November-December period around the Christmas season. We should broaden eligibility for the back-to-school allowance for those in receipt of social welfare and just outside of the social welfare eligibility category.

While there is no Department of Education and Youth mandated school device policy, I am hearing from constituents right across Limerick that more and more schools are bringing in a one-to-one device policy. It is up to each individual secondary school to do that but they are trying to follow the Department's guidance on keeping pace with technology and ensuring children are digital ready, and to access resources that are available for secondary school students online and for uniformity, schools are bringing in a one-to-one policy where the parents are asked to get Chromebooks or a particular type of device, usually at lower cost or as low as possible. For some parents, if they have two children in their household with that required in September, they are facing an additional bill of nearly €1,000 before the put a shirt on the child's back going to school. In light of the increased popularity of these devices in secondary schools and the fact that we want our children to be digitally enabled, we need to introduce some sort of scheme to cover the cost of those devices for families.

We need to consider reform of the Student Universal Support Ireland, SUSI, means-testing to exclude the earnings of the student. While I welcome that we broadened the threshold for eligibility for a SUSI grant and, in fact, a household can be earning up to €120,000 now and be eligible for a SUSI grant, the catch is that the student's earnings are taken into consideration. We should free up the students altogether, exclude them from the determination of the means test for the household, and allow them to juggle their school requirements with some part-time work. It would mean that we would not have to increase the expenditure on the SUSI grant but that more people are allowed to support themselves, as they are able to, through their third-level experience.

Those are my suggestions. I look forward to talking to the Minister of State and our party colleagues further as we approach the budget for 2027.We have to keep families with small mouths to feed at the forefront of our minds when we are developing that budget.

Joe Conway (Independent)
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I am delighted to see my fellow midlander, the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, here again. He is welcome back.

Senator Casey said that the measures taken recently were evidence of "steady considered governing." I accept an awful lot of that because, when taken into the panoply of interventions that are used across Europe, the interventions the Government has made amounts to €750 million and per capita they are as generous as anywhere in the OECD countries. That is to be welcomed. However, there are 300,000 people in arrears with their energy bills. According to data from the charity, ALONE, approximately 40% of older people have reported that they tolerate the cold to save on heating. If that is the case, it is a poor story to be telling in a country that is alleged to be one of the wealthiest in the world.

The first thing that we should do is look at the campus here in Leinster House. Today, I welcomed a couple of visitors and they came into the hall. While I waited for them to get their badges, I happened to lean casually on the radiator perch in the hall to find that it was glowing hot. It is late afternoon and the temperature outside is 16°C. This morning, the temperature was easily that and was probably more. Why on earth have we got central heating on in this campus at this time of year? It defies description. I would not think there is a sensible household in the country that is burning oil, or whatever is burned here, to have the place heated. We should start looking at our own campus and our own backyard.

The greatest practical measure we could introduce nationally to save on expensive imports of oil would be, for the next few months until, heaven help us, this géarchéim sa Mheánoirthear or emergency in the Middle East, is to ask the Government to impose a temporary restriction of an 80 km/h speed limit nationally. We would save a fortune on imported oil and gas that way.

Sometimes we exaggerate the poverty and penury that exist in this State. Back in the 1980s and 1990s I was the sole earner as a lowly-paid primary schoolteacher and we had three kids. We got no State handouts other than the children's allowance, which was meagre enough at the time. We got no SUSI grants. We did that because we made the conscious decision that one of the parents would stay at home and bring up the kids. That decision took all this business of childcare out of it. Essentially, what we were doing was sentencing ourselves to a life of penury then but I rejoice that the investment paid off so well in the fact that we have brought up kids who are contributing hugely to the economy and are a credit to themselves and, I hope, are a credit to their parents. That was done with remarkable effort. There was no such thing as entertainment for a lot of families then. People lived inside. The television was the only entertainment. As for getting grants for laptops, laptops were unheard of and if they were, we would not be getting them. That sort of stuff did not exist at all. Even the most minuscule level of income, if people were working in the public service, rendered them ineligible for a SUSI or as it was then, a county council grant.

When we talk about measures that we can take to battle these outrageous happenings in the Middle East and Ukraine, we have to be prudent and look at our own finances because, as a country, we cannot continue to have a knee-jerk response with bailouts and dole outs. They are very necessary at the moment but sooner or later, the pot of money will run dry and nobody will thank us, as two Legislatures here, if we responded in a populist way slinging money at the problems that occur. We have to take practical measures. They do not cost money in the first place but generate a big saving. My suggestion of a reduced national speed limit, as they say nowadays in that awful cliché, has to be a no-brainer.

I applaud the level of response by the Government. It has been generous. I applaud it with a very strongly flashing amber light because I am very worried about a constant repetition of intervention and paying off interest groups. There was a trade unionist in the 1980s called Sid Weighell who was the head of the National Union of Railwaymen and he used to say that people got money because of the “philosophy of the pig trough - those with the biggest snouts get the biggest share". We have to watch the interest groups who cry the loudest and look after the purse that belongs to the average Joe.

Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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On that note, the Senator is no average Joe. Anois, an Seanadóir Duffy.

Mark Duffy (Fine Gael)
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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.

Conor Murphy (Sinn Fein)
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Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. The motion tonight is a brave attempt by the Government parties to put a bit of a sticking plaster over the discontent that spilled onto our roads over the past number of weeks. The offering by the Government in response gives only basic supports to those in the haulage and farming industries and little else for the majority of the public. There is nothing for home heating oil, only delayed increases in the carbon tax and only temporary reductions in excise duties on petrol, diesel and marked gas oil.

In a time of abundance the Government's largesse has been very selective. Last week we learned of a predicted general Government surplus of over €9 billion for this year, with another predicted €9 billion for the following year. That makes the introduction of an emergency budget an option that is open to the Government. The reality of life for the majority of citizens across this State is that they are counting every euro like they never have before. The cost of food and basic groceries has skyrocketed and the cost of fuel and home heating oil is soaring. These are the necessities of life; not luxuries. The energy regulator, as Senator Joe Conway said, published figures yesterday confirming that almost 317,000 households were behind on their electricity bill in February. More than half of these households are in debt for over 90 days and the number is growing every day. The average amount now owed stands at almost €500, which is an increase of almost €65 on last year.

The motion congratulates the Government for its prudent fiscal management but it seems to have forgotten already that ordinary workers, lorry drivers, and farmers were left with no option but to take to the roads to make their voices heard. This is an example of how out of touch the Government has become. Its fiscal management brought the State to a standstill.

Sinn Féin has brought a sensible proposal to the Government to introduce an emergency budget that cuts the cost of electricity by delivering energy credits to families and reduces the tax on fuel, thereby bringing it to affordable levels. We also need a social welfare package that supports people who are struggling, including carers, older people and disabled people and a permanent cut to the universal social charge that will put money back in workers' pockets. If the Government wants to talk up its annual progress report that is fine but for citizens across this State, the key takeaway is that at a time of unprecedented wealth the Government does not recognise their struggles in the here and now. According to the Taoiseach, they can wait until October's budget for any help that may come, if at all.

I am pleased about the predictions of a budget surplus and that the economy is resilient but there is so much more that could be done to help people who are struggling. The motion congratulates the Government but the measures have fallen far short. That has been the clear message from the people who protested, and since then, in terms of the real experience of struggling families on the ground. I do not see how my party could support a motion that gives credit to measures that have fallen far short of what is required to give genuine relief to people at this time.

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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I thank Senators Casey and Ryan for bringing this motion before the House this evening. I welcome the opportunity to speak on the recently published annual progress report and the Government’s response to recent energy price pressures.

The annual progress report is a key part of both the annual budgetary cycle and the European fiscal framework. It sets out the Department of Finance’s latest assessment in respect of the economic and fiscal outlook, as well as the risks we face in the years ahead. Before turning to the economic outlook, it is important to contextualise the forecasts. This year’s report was, once again, prepared against the backdrop of heightened global uncertainty. In recent weeks we have seen a major shock to global energy markets with disruption affecting more than 20 million barrels of oil per day. While recent steps towards de-escalation are welcome, volatility remains and even if the current ceasefire holds, the economic effects are likely to take time to fully unwind. We have seen significant damage to oil and gas infrastructure which, even if hostilities were to permanently end today, will take years to repair and return to their full capacity.

As a small, highly open economy and, importantly, a net energy importer, Ireland is exposed to movements in international energy prices. Indeed, recent price increases are already placing real pressures on households and businesses across the country. That is why the Government has acted decisively with a €750 million package to reduce costs at the petrol pump, support those most at risk of energy poverty and assist key sectors including haulage, construction, agriculture, fisheries and quarries that are critical to keeping our economy moving.

Before going into further details on the measures we have introduced, I would like to give Members an update on the assessment of the Irish economy as set out in the annual progress report. Despite external pressures facing the Irish economy, domestic activity has shown considerable resilience. Nowhere is that more evident than in the labour market. Employment stands at 2.83 million, a record high, and is expected to exceed 3 million within the next five years. Likewise, the unemployment rate remains low, having stayed below 5%, a level consistent with full employment, for 16 consecutive quarters. This robust labour market has supported consumer spending and domestic demand. Modified domestic demand, a proxy for underlying domestic activity, grew by 4.9% in 2025. This performance reflects the strength of our enterprise base and the policy choices this Government has made in recent years. However, this resilience must not give rise to complacency. In the current environment, risks remain clearly tilted to the downside.

I will now turn to the economic outlook. Given fast-moving geopolitical developments, the endorsed projections in the annual progress report should be viewed as a reference or baseline scenario, providing a useful benchmark against which new developments will be assessed. Indeed, in recognition of the turbulent backdrop, the report also includes two alternative scenarios examining how the outlook could vary under different energy-price developments. Importantly however, despite the varying levels of economic effects, under each scenario the economy is expected to continue to grow. In the near term, the outlook is largely shaped by external developments beyond our control. Under the baseline scenario, inflation is projected at 3.3% this year, based on relatively benign assumptions regarding developments in the Middle East. Under a severe scenario, however, inflation could rise to around 4.5%, with adverse effects on both growth and employment. While I would very much stress that this is a severe scenario, it is something that the Government must be prepared for.Indeed, the Government has consistently argued for running budgetary surpluses precisely so that we have the fiscal capacity to respond when shocks arise.

Looking beyond the short term, the outlook is shaped by more structural factors. Demographic change will significantly affect the economy, influencing labour supply while increasing pressures on public services. At the same time, advances in artificial intelligence are reshaping how we work, the nature of the jobs we work in and the skills required for those jobs. Many of these factors are assessed in the report via scenario analysis. While these transformational changes come along with challenges, they also present major opportunities and we must prepare accordingly. That is why the Government continues to invest in critical infrastructure, including energy, water, housing and transport, and in people, making Ireland an attractive location in which to invest, to work and to live into the future.

I now want to say a few words about the public finances. For this year, the Department of Finance is projecting a general Government surplus of €9.2 billion, equivalent to 2% per cent of modified national income. This surplus has been underpinned by the economic resilience I have been referring to. However, we must also be realistic about the risks ahead. Our revenue base remains heavily reliant on volatile windfall corporate tax receipts, leaving us exposed to any downturn in the multinational sector. To give Senators a sense of what that looks like in practice, income tax, corporation tax, VAT and excise duties account for over 90% of all tax revenue. Last year, corporation tax generated around one third of our tax revenue. That is a significant portion of the funding model for this country and whilewe are projecting to run a surplus this year, we must be honest that interventions and once-off measures reduce our ability to prioritise day-to-day services and spending. That is why we continue to build long-term resilience through the Future Ireland Fund and the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund. I am happy to say that close to €23 billion will have been transferred into these funds by the end of this year.

More broadly, we are committed to making the critical investments needed consistent with sound public finances, as outlined in our medium-term fiscal structural plan. Indeed, this approach will continue to give us the flexibility to respond quickly and effectively to challenges that may arise. We must also focus on diversification of our tax base where possible to continue to future-proof our economy. This is an area I am focused on through Ireland for Finance, the Government strategy for the international financial services sector. This is a sector which can continue to develop, while also generating opportunities for indigenous firms to scale. We have a competitive edge here. From research and development tax credits to the national enterprise hub and local enterprise offices, we are implementing policy which supports diversification and innovation. Last week, I had the opportunity to highlight this on the international stage in south-east Asia, and it is regrettable that a recent multi-ministerial visit to Canada had to be postponed. These are new markets we need to exploit and tap into to ensure we continue to run budgetary surpluses.

Today we announced a package of fuel supports that will help those who are at the forefront of the global energy crisis, which has been instigated far from our borders. Under the fuel support scheme, approximately 120,000 farmers and 1,500 full-time agricultural contractors will receive Government support. This package, along with previously announced supports, will deliver an effective reduction of €274 in the purchase of 1,000 litres of green diesel. We have reduced the rates of excise duty applying to petrol, auto diesel and marked gas oil, commonly known as "green diesel". Additionally, the National Oil Reserve Agency levy has been reduced by 2 cent per litre of fuel. These reductions will remain in effect until 31 July 2026. The total reductions will reduce the cost of petrol by 27 cent per litre, diesel by 32 cent per litre and green diesel by 7.4 cent per litre. In addition, the Government also deferred the planned increase in carbon tax scheduled for 1 May until October. This will provide additional support for consumers of green diesel and other affected fuels, such as kerosene heating oil, natural gas and solid fuels.

To protect those at risk of fuel poverty, the Government has extended the fuel allowance season, which would have normally run for 28 weeks, by a further four weeks. This will result in additional payments of €152 to each of the nearly 470,000 fuel allowance recipients who comprise over one quarter of households in Ireland. This means that a typical household receiving fuel allowance will have received €1,216 over the course of the fuel allowance season. In budget 2026, the Government previously announced that VAT on electricity and gas will remain at the lowest possible level of 9% until the end of 2030 to help to mitigate costs and address energy poverty.

Further to this, we have increased the maximum repayment allowable under the diesel rebate scheme from 7.5 cent up to 12 cent per litre of diesel. This is a scheme which is available to qualifying licensed haulage and passenger transport operators and has been backdated to January and will apply until 30 June 2026. These changes will keep the economy moving.

Ultimately, it is clear that we need to decouple from our reliance on fossil fuels to ensure energy independence. As an example of recent progress, Ireland has recently achieved 8 GW of installed onshore renewable electricity capacity, marking a significant step forward in the transition to securing our future with homegrown renewable energy.

Senator Duffy made the point that we need to be concentrated and moving towards renewable energy. The old saying is that we should never waste a crisis. This should focus the Government's efforts. We must redouble our efforts in the transition to renewable energy. We need, in particular, to exploit the vast amounts of renewable energy on the western seaboard.

l am conscious, despite what some may project, that no Government across the world can fully shield all households and businesses from rising fuel and energy costs. Any fair-minded person would say that the suite of measures announced by the Government and costed at over €750 million is a significant response to real pressures being felt across Ireland, and globally, and is one of the most comprehensive support packages per capitain the European Union.

This year's annual progress report highlights that the global environment has become more uncertain and unpredictable. At the same time, Ireland is entering this period from a position of strength. Employment is at record levels, the public finances are in surplus and the economy has repeatedly demonstrated its capacity to adapt and recover from shocks. This resilience has not happened by chance. It reflects deliberate choices to strengthen the foundations of the economy and to manage the public finances in a prudent and sustainable way. That prudence and the position it has put us in does not give us licence to spend unsustainably, but does allow us to act in a responsible and targeted manner. That is the approach this Government will continue to take.

I will address a number of the specific points raised in the course of the debate. Senator Ryan made a number of suggestions. The Government has been clear that as we frame budget 2027, it is very much our intention to ensure that working families get a break. The most recent budget took the decision to invest heavily in housing and infrastructure and supporting jobs, but it is acknowledged that we need to ensure that working families get the support they deserve and need in the upcoming budget.

Senator Conway spoke about hearing anecdotally that some people are staying longer in bed because of the cost of fuel. The point I would make is that we are all constituency operators. Nobody should be doing that. If there is somebody who is unintentionally falling through the net, the community welfare officer is there to ensure that people can get that extra benefit on top of their fuel allowance and old age pension. Exceptional needs payments are available. I ask everybody to use their good offices in their respective constituencies to ensure that people are aware of that additional support and do not feel ashamed or embarrassed to come forward to avail of it.It is there to be used and I encourage people to use it. I thank all Senators for their contributions this evening. I look forward to engaging with them in the months ahead.

Pat Casey (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Minister of State for his contribution. I welcome the acknowledgement that budget 2027 will be focused on the family income and the people who are most pressurised in society now. We must ensure that going to work pays a better dividend than not working. I am delighted to see the change in focus for budget 2027.

Ireland's success is incomparable if we think of our resilience and what we have gone through even in the last seven years, with Brexit, the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and now the Iran war. On every one of those occasions, we have been in a position to intervene to provide temporary measures because of the fiscal management of the economy. While we might have differences, spending windfall taxes on day-to-day expenditure is not the policy anyone should follow. We should learn from the past. We have done that before and we have seen the trouble it got us into where we spent all the taxes that were coming in. We have to appreciate that we are putting money away to protect our pensions into the future in relation to the deficit in the National Pensions Reserve Fund. The €23 billion we have put into those funds is welcome.

I do not know if I felt the same heater Senator Conway felt in the lobby, but having it on was a bit of a contradiction. Sometimes I wonder if we can not just install thermostats that shut the heaters off when a certain temperature is reached. Senator Conway and I are probably of a different generation from a lot of people here and sometimes we forget what we have come through. Anybody who came out of college in the late 1970s or 1980s came into a completely different Ireland from the one we see today. Sometimes we forget that and take it for granted. When I came out of college, we had high inflation, the highest levels of unemployment and huge industrial disputes where we were losing hundreds of thousands of workdays every year. The thing that put us on the pathway to success was the social partnership that was agreed in the late eighties. We need to revisit social partnership and re-engage with all the sectors in it in order that we have a stable economy and do not have the issues that arose recently. We do not want the outside world and companies considering FDI looking in and saying Ireland has an unstable economy. We cannot go back there again. We witnessed it, we experienced it and we know what it was like. Many people today have never witnessed that. Social partnership laid the foundation for the success of this State and we must revisit it.

The Government has done what is right and has introduced targeted measures. We cannot spend windfall taxes on reducing excise and VAT. We just cannot keep doing that. We must learn from the past. My colleague Senator Dee Ryan spoke about what we are doing to deal with costs for school-going children. That is helping working families again and I welcome it. I am delighted to hear that budget 2027 will focus on working families and make it worthwhile for people to go to work, which is of key importance. I also thank the Government for the interventions for two specific sectors. Those interventions in haulage and agriculture work their way down to supermarket prices. If we had not intervened, all those prices would be going up in the next day or two.

Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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I welcome to the Distinguished Visitors Gallery Senator Devlin Robinson from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County to be precise, who, along with Mary Jo Daley passed the legislation creating the Pennsylvania-Ireland Trade Commission. He is here to attend the Global Irish Civic Forum. I think he claimed he single-handedly got Aer Lingus to establish direct flights from Pittsburgh to Ireland. Let anyone else dispute it. I thank him for being here.

When is it proposed to sit again?

Garret Ahearn (Fine Gael)
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Tomorrow at 9.30 a.m.

Mark Daly (Fianna Fail)
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Is that agreed? Agreed.