2026-06-11

46. Deputy John Paul O'Shea asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the measures being taken to address the high cost of energy for households and small businesses, particularly in rural areas; if he will consider further targeted supports in the upcoming budget; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [42815/26]

Deputy O'Shea had better not go over time.

What measures are being taken to address the crisis of high energy costs for householders and small businesses, particularly in rural areas? Will further targeted supports be considered in the upcoming budget?

We have discussed a number of measures this morning, including directly funded retrofitting for families and the grants we can provide to reduce energy usage. Those measures are good for our climate because they reduce emissions and they reduce costs for households. We have been able to retrofit approximately 264,000 homes so far. Earlier this year, the Minister of State and I, along with our team, looked at the grants that were available and broke them down to make them more accessible, particularly for middle-income families. In the first quarter of this year, there were more than 50,000 applications for home retrofitting. We need to support that because it takes pressure off our energy system. It is good as well because we are pointing families and householders in the direction of renewable energy. Over 120,000 homes now have rooftop solar systems. Those grants have been increased, as have heat pump grants. The focus on rural areas, which the Deputy mentioned, is critical. We have brought forward things to be able to break down the grants, like attic insulation or cavity walls, which can be done separately. The windows and doors grants were also not available before unless you retrofitted your whole home. To be frank, many people could not afford to do that, even though the grants were substantial because these still needed to be matched with substantial funding. That is why we have broken them down. We have had over 8,000 applications for that grant alone, based on the last numbers I had, in just a two-month period. These are practical measures we are taking for people. On the business side of things, we had 5,000 business retrofitting grants approved. We need to focus a lot more of our resources in that space because it protects people against future price shocks. When people get retrofitting done, their energy bills come down and they are protected against future shocks. They are also pivoting towards renewables and we are making good progress there.

I concur with the Minister on the uptake of the grants, particularly the windows and doors grant. There has been a significant uptake in that grant. Certainly, through our own constituency offices, we can see there is great interest in it. I commend the Minister, his Department and all the team on making that available. Having the smaller grants available is hugely important for people who can afford them and can do retrofits in pieces and patches. That opportunity allows people to invest in their own homes as best as possible. I also concur with the previous speaker, Deputy Murphy, as regards the warmer homes scheme and community energy scheme on how we can work with the SEAI to ensure more people can access those grants as quickly as possible. There is great appetite out there for more work in this space. I hope, along with budget 2027 and further budgets, we can continue the good work that has been done to date.

On the warmer homes scheme, and I listened to the Cathaoirleach Gníomhach's intervention on that, approximately 34,000 homes have been fully retrofitted with 100% grants. It is a great scheme, but waiting times are too long. To be fair to the SEAI, as Deputy Murphy said, it has submitted an action plan. I have a meeting later this afternoon in that regard to see how we can speed that up. We have made two specific changes for people on the warmer homes waiting list who can now access certain grants, which will not affect them while they are waiting for the overall grant. We are also retrofitting social homes at a level that has never been seen before, which is also a good thing. This protects those at risk of energy poverty, it is good for the climate and good for their pocket, as well as being good for our energy system. I will keep Members informed on this. I have a further meeting this afternoon with the team specifically relating to the SEAI action plan.

The Minister mentioned in previous contributions this morning the national energy affordability task force. Having that come out in quarter 3 of this year will be very important, particularly the four points addressed as part of that. These are the price of energy, sustainability in demand, enhancement of flexibility and addressing energy poverty for the consumer and customer protections. That is hugely important because we have a lot of people who are currently in arrears. How we can target that energy poverty measures to those customers will be hugely important. Likewise, with energy affordability for businesses the Minister just mentioned, if we can keep going along that process for the next 12 months, we can also certainly do a significant amount of work and see significant benefits from that.

The meat of that report will feed into our budget considerations and deliberations. I expect to have that by the end of July this year. We have done a lot of work on it. It looks at some potential structural changes and short-, medium- and longer-term measures, as well as further improving measures that are in place. We know we are not in the position we want to be in with regard to energy costs. That is why it is so important that we accelerate delivery of renewables across the board and reduce our dependence on wholesale fossil fuel markets. Fundamentally, that is the major problem we face. The figures out today do not deal with long-term systemic arrears. They are arrears from day one to post-90 days, so the figures themselves need to be interrogated more. However, anyone who does find themselves in arrears should make contact with their energy provider. Plans are there and will be put in place to help households. The last thing anyone wants, and I have said this to energy providers, is for people to be cut off from the energy they need. People should engage with their providers. I thank the Deputy for his support.