Energy Prices

1. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the plans to reintroduce an electricity credit; the reason he did not introduce one as part of Budget 2027; if he will make any reforms to Ireland’s energy market to bring down prices; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [78102/26]

The Minister knows that we have the highest energy bills in Europe. Wholesale prices are surging again. They are up about 93% in a single year and no doubt another set of price hikes will be on the way. In the budget, however, the Government chose not to introduce energy credits or a household energy payment to give households some breathing space. Pensioners, workers and struggling families have now had years of these costs. Groceries are up 25%, mortgage costs have doubled and electricity and gas prices have increased. Why did the Minister choose not to give a credit?

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. As everyone knows, the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have caused significant disruption to international energy markets. This has resulted in higher energy prices for households and businesses right the way across Europe, including in Ireland. In response to that, the Government has taken a range of significant measures to help support consumers with energy costs. We have established the national energy affordability task force to examine energy affordability challenges and identify practical measures to support households and businesses. The work of the task force helped to inform key aspects of budget 2027 with a particular focus on those most vulnerable to high energy costs. A central element of the Government's approach is reducing energy bills through improved energy efficiency and increased deployment of solar PV. Budget 2027 provided a record €654 million for residential and community energy upgrade schemes. This investment will support more households to improve energy performance of their homes and lower their energy consumption, permanently reducing bills and improving comfort, while decreasing reliance on imported fossil fuel. The Government also continues to support fully funded energy upgrades for eligible low-income households. Since 2019, we have provided over €2 billion and delivered over 300,000 energy upgrades, including nearly 41,000 fully funded upgrades to households at risk of energy poverty. Homeowners can save up to €1,120 per annum when they carry out whole home upgrades. Social protection supports are another important component of the Government's response. In the budget we increased the rate of fuel allowance to over €1,200 per year and expanded the eligibility for the scheme, which now supports over one quarter of households nationwide. In addition, increases were provided for the living alone allowance and the child support payment, while a new cost-of-disability payment was also introduced.

The Minister referred to upgrades, but the Government is way behind on its heat pump targets and on the retrofitting targets. This crisis of people not being able to afford their energy bills and being put under enormous pressure is the direct result of political choices that have been made by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments over the years. This Government has also made a conscious choice not to give people temporary relief. We in Sinn Féin know that energy credits are not a long-term solution. It is, as Andy Burnham has said in England, to give immediate breathing space to people. It is a short-term measure to provide relief and to give time, while we should be bringing down prices. We have proposed a number of measures in legislation over the past few years including a windfall tax, resetting access to grid infrastructure because data centres cannot continue their free-for-all, and legislation to hold the energy companies to account when they are making massive profits on the backs of ordinary people. We also have legislation to accelerate our renewables transition. Will the Government adopt any of that legislation? We are not pushy. We would like the Government to take our legislation and use it for its own proposals.

Of course you would. There are two things. We are not way behind on retrofitting at all. This year alone, as of the end of last month, we had 124,000 applications for home energy upgrades. This is because of the change to the grants that I brought forward with the Government earlier this year. That is double last year's total. We have over 300,000 home energy upgrades. These deliver permanent savings. That is where I want to see this happen. We are still at risk of the vagaries of international wholesale gas prices, so the best thing we can do is permanently reduce people's use, make their homes more efficient and make businesses more efficient. There were over 5,000 business grants last year paid for through the carbon tax that Sinn Féin would get rid of. That is €654 million we are investing. It goes straight into homes, businesses and farms to help reduce their costs, reduce their energy consumption and deliver cleaner and more sustainable energy. That will be our focus. We have also targeted the supports at a social welfare level to over one quarter of our households, with €1,200 per year, along with the fuel supports we brought forward for productive sectors like haulage and farming, and for motorists, with €1.4 billion of supports.

While we are talking about the prices, in September the Minister said that the national energy affordability task force, NEAT, so-called "action plan" would inform budget 2027. He said that other areas were under consideration in advance of the budget and that the national energy affordability task force would feed into that. We are now a month on from the budget and the Minister has failed to produce it. There is a delay of five months. What impact did that task force report have on the budget? Why did the Minster fail to publish it? Is there any particular reason for that? In truth, is it a talking shop? How often has it met? Is it just a smokescreen to delay things further down the road and give more excuses so that immediate relief is not given to people who are really struggling with their energy bills? The Minister has no answers for people who are struggling with their energy bills.

I am going to publish that in the next couple of weeks. It did feed into the budget. The Deputy may recall that just prior to the budget I brought out a new set of grants, such as the boiler scrappage scheme. This is €14,500 to replace fossil fuel boilers. That is a massive issue for people with home heating oil or other types of fossil fuel boilers. This €14,500 more than doubled in the course of the year. I brought back in the domestic battery grant, which was gotten rid of for some reason a number of years. That is in place now. These were specific measures out of the national energy affordability task force, which the Deputy will see very shortly because I will publish it in the next couple of weeks. I will bring it to Cabinet and will then publish it. There are also medium- and longer-term measures within it, such as looking at the construct of builds and the regulatory framework. The Deputy can be assured that it was not delayed at all. I chair those meetings as well. It meets regularly. The NEAT report will be published in the coming weeks, well in advance of the end of the year. That will provide a guide for the other work we need to do with regard to energy over the course of next year, the year after that and for the remainder of this Government.