Tackling Soaring Energy Costs: Motion [Private Members]

Deputy Gary Gannon

I move:

That Dáil Éireann;

notes that:

— energy prices in Ireland are already among the highest in Europe and prices are continuing to rise rapidly;

— the cost of home heating oil rose by nearly 70 per cent last month alone, the largest month-on-month increase ever recorded;

— kerosene is the main heating fuel for 700,000 households across the country;

— the prices of petrol and diesel have exponentially increased in recent weeks, putting huge pressure on commuters as well as the transport and agricultural sectors;

— households in Ireland pay €360 more a year for electricity than the European Union average;

— gas prices in Ireland are now double what they were in 2021;

— there are 315,000 households in arrears on their electricity bills, up 20 per cent in just 12 months, and 180,000 households are in arrears on gas bills; and

— prices are also soaring across the economy, for groceries, housing, transport and insurance costs;

further notes that:

— sky-rocketing energy prices have been coupled with huge increases in other household costs, like groceries and rent, and are putting a huge strain on low-and-middle-income families;

— according to a 2025 Credit Union Consumer Sentiment survey, 15 per cent of Irish consumers would be unable to cope with a financial emergency costing €1,000;

— a Barnardos report last year found 75 per cent of parents had to cut back or go without essential items because of cost-of-living increases;

— a Child Poverty Monitor last year found the number of children living in consistent poverty nearly doubled, to more than 100,000; and

— Children's Rights Alliance Chief Executive Officer Tanya Ward has described the cumulative impact of continued soaring costs as "a landslide effect" for low-income families, meaning providing basic necessities like nutritious food or a warm home has become increasingly difficult;

agrees that:

— wholesale electricity prices have fallen by more than 70 per cent since their 2022 peak, but retail prices have only fallen by approximately 20 per cent during the same period;

— in fact, as electricity wholesale prices continued to fall last year, all but one commercial provider hiked their prices, most by double digit figures; and

— wholesale prices have continued to fall this year, but retail prices have not been cut;

further notes that:

— the Government consistently says it wants to target supports where they are needed most, but there is a huge gap between what they say and what they do;

— according to the Parliamentary Budget Office, the Government's recent budget reduced the incomes of the poorest households by over four per cent and massively increased poverty rates among elderly people from 13 per cent to 19 per cent;

— according to the Disability Federation of Ireland, Budget 2026 also cut the incomes of disabled people, among those most at risk of poverty, by up to €1,400 per annum; and

— the inadequate support measures the Government announced in March 2026 provided no support for households that rely on home heating oil and do not receive the Fuel Allowance; and

calls on the Government to:

— provide emergency relief to struggling individuals and families by immediately introducing a €400 energy credit, targeted at families earning up to €70,000;

— adopt the Social Democrats "Solar for All" plan which includes a doubling of grants for solar installation to €3,600, and the inclusion of solar panels in the "Warmer Homes Scheme" to help families cut electricity costs by an average of €450 a year;

— introduce a supplementary mileage scheme for essential workers like nurses and carers, who depend on their cars to travel for work; and

— increase the rebate scheme for the transport sector, to cover unsustainable increases in fuel costs, and introduce a rebate scheme for green diesel that can be availed of by agricultural contractors and others who use that fuel.

There is something in the air at present. You can feel it. It feels heavier. I can feel it in conversations every day, on the doors, in the shops, and when I stop and talk to people on the street. It is a level of pressure and of desperation that I have not witnessed since the period of austerity. People are not just worried any more; they are stretched completely to the limit. They are choosing between heating their homes and feeding their families. They are juggling bills, putting things off and hoping nothing else goes wrong because if it does, they have nothing left to give. People feel completely on their own while the Government is trying to tell them everything is fine.

We had Ministers and backbenchers yesterday pointing to record surpluses and offering platitudes while thousands of households were living in deficit and struggling just to get through the week. They are completely disconnected from the reality of what people are going through and this week showed that in the starkest of terms.

Wholesale electricity prices have fallen by more than 70% since their 2022 peak. Retail prices have fallen by approximately 20%. While this is happening, all but one commercial provider increased their prices, most by double-digit figures. That gap is not an accident. It is a choice of a Government that has failed to intervene. It is a choice that has been made at the expense of every family simply trying to get through the week.

The Government says that it wants to target supports where they are needed most but in the previous budget, it reduced the incomes of the poorest households. It cut the incomes of disabled people by €1,400 a year. The measures announced in March provided nothing for households relying on home heating oil that were not in receipt of the fuel allowance. That is exactly why we are bringing forward the motion today.

Our proposals are straightforward. They include a targeted €400 energy credit for households earning up to €70,000. In over 1 million households, people are working, contributing, doing everything right and still being left behind. We recognise that for our most vital workers, people without whom the country would collapse, the pressure is even higher. I refer to nurses, carers, people who cannot work from home and people who rely on their cars to do their jobs. Right now, and I wish this was hyperbole, many of them are effectively paying to go to work. We are proposing a supplementary mileage scheme for essential workers and targeted support for those people who need their cars to provide the service that we ask of them.

These are necessary responses to an immediate crisis but they are not sufficient on their own.

Fossil fuel energy appears cheap up front but when you are buying gas and oil forever, you have no control over the price set in global markets. Every few years, first with Ukraine and now Iran, we are reminded with brutal clarity of just how exposed it leaves us. Renewable energy works the other way. Admittedly, there are high upfront costs but once it is running, the fuel is free and the maintenance is low. That is the logic behind our Solar for All plan. The upfront cost is a barrier and that is precisely where the State must act. Research from UCD estimates that all homes in Ireland have the potential for solar. If realised, it could meet a quarter of all residential electricity demand. A typical installation saves a household over €400 a year. Ireland generates just 1.5% of our total energy from solar. Denmark, similar in size, population and weather, is at 5%. That is not a geographic difference. That is a political choice. We are proposing to double the solar installation grant to €3,600, to include solar panels in the warmer home schemes and to introduce a €1,000 battery storage grant. We are asking a straightforward question. Why did this Government cut solar grants while we lurched from one energy crisis to the next? The lesson was there but was clearly not learned. A credit will help families now, they need it now and we are not walking away from that, but solar investments help families for a lifetime. The State may not always have the fiscal room it has today. The question is whether we use this moment just to spend or whether we use it to invest, and we are choosing to invest.

Right now, there is an opportunity and a space for leadership. During the oil crisis shock in the 1970s, Denmark chose to invest in its renewables. That is why it has offset the worst pain for its citizens being experienced today during this crisis. What we need now is a Government of vision - people who will listen to the concerns of those who they meet on the streets and at the doors and respond to them with urgency, clarity and compassion - but we also need people of vision who will stand up and say that we are going to invest so that never again will we be in this situation. That is why we are bringing our motion today.

Deputy Holly Cairns

First of all, I thank Deputy Gannon for all of his work on this motion.

No matter how hard people work, it is becoming more and more difficult to stay afloat. People are holding their breath before opening their energy bills.

Small businesses are staring at their accounts wondering how much longer they can keep going, and workers who rely on diesel to do their jobs are trying to figure out how they can absorb another price shock. That deep crushing anxiety is what brought people onto the streets.

What the protests alongside the war in Iran have made clear is just how vulnerable we are to sudden and dramatic price spikes because we have not built the energy resilience we need at home. Successive Governments have failed to invest in renewable energy and to protect from exactly this kind of crisis. Ireland should be a leader in climate action. We have the resources to build an energy system that is cleaner, cheaper and more secure. Take solar energy. There are close to a million homes in this country suitable for solar panels, yet only a fraction have them installed. Why? For too many people, it is still too expensive. That is why the Social Democrats have put forward the plan Solar for All. It would double grants, expand access and make solar a real option for ordinary households, not just those who can afford large upfront costs. It would cut bills by hundreds of euro each year and give people real protection from future energy shocks. I refer to real solutions that, if implemented, could meaningfully help people. That is what we need and what climate action should look like. It should be practical, fair and focused on improving people's lives. This transition must bring everyone with us.

The pressure being placed on farmers right now is unbelievable. The nature of the job means that the weight on their shoulders is immense. There is responsibility for livestock and a job that never lets up, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Alongside that, there is often loneliness, isolation and a mental health crisis that we do not talk about nearly enough.

When I meet representatives of Macra na Feirme, one of the core issues they raise with me is generational renewal, which is hardly surprising if you imagine being a young person who is thinking right now about taking over the family farm. Imagine how they have felt for the past week, seeing the crushing effect rising costs have had on farmers, their own families and their loved ones, seeing the toll that they are taking on people's mental health and hearing the Government patronise and dismiss people who have been driven to the brink. People are not protesting because they want to; they are protesting because they feel they have no choice. The protests are a symptom of a larger problem. The protesters deserve to be listened to and deserve a Government that is finally willing to act.

Deputy Liam Quaide

The cost of energy is one pressure among many bearing down on families already dealing with soaring costs of rent, groceries, insurance and transport. For many families, there is simply no give left in the monthly budget. The Government's response to the energy crisis so far amounts to a very expensive, broad-brush set of measures that leave clear gaps and whose modest effect will evaporate quickly if the situation in the Middle East becomes more entrenched. If you reduce fuel taxes, everybody who buys fuel gets some minor, short-lived benefit. That includes people under real strain, but it also includes people who are much better able to absorb rising costs. If you extend the fuel allowance, it matters for those in the scheme but it leaves out many households just above the threshold who are also struggling.

When the Government says it is targeting support, it is worth noting that it is spending substantial sums in a very diffuse manner. That is where the Social Democrats motion takes a better approach. It proposes a €400 energy credit for households earning up to €70,000. That is more direct because it is aimed at low- and middle-income households facing significant and increasing pressure with bills. It proposes a supplementary mileage scheme for essential workers such as carers and nurses. Again, that is more targeted because it recognises that some workers cannot simply reduce their amount of driving. Their transport costs are built into their jobs. The motion proposes stronger rebate supports for transport and green diesel users. That measure recognises the sectors where fuel inflation has the most considerable knock-on effect. Crucially, it includes Solar for All, which would double the solar grant to €3,600 and bring solar panels into the warmer homes scheme. That matters because it is not just about getting through the next few months. It is also about reducing bills on a lasting basis. That is a better use of public money than repeatedly spending large sums in ways that only shave costs off for everyone temporarily and so meagrely that nobody is satisfied.

There is also a wider point here. The Parliamentary Budget Office found that when temporary cost-of-living measures were withdrawn, the poorest households were hit hardest, with average losses of 4.5% for the poorest tenth of households. That same analysis also made the point that broad measures like the reduced VAT rates on gas and electricity were untargeted and benefited low- and high-income households alike, while more targeted options would be preferable. The issue is not whether the Government has spent money, because it has, but whether that money has been directed well enough and with a sustained benefit for those who need it most.

This motion argues for a more deliberate approach, direct support for households under genuine strain, specific help for workers and sectors with unavoidable fuel costs, and longer term investments that reduce bills rather than simply soften them for a short period. That is a more focused response, a fairer response and a better use of public money.

Deputy Jen Cummins

I canvass regularly in my constituency, Dublin South-Central, and I hold clinics on a weekly basis. I can tell the Minister that people are far from all right in Dublin South-Central. When we set aside the issues with housing and also that of appropriate school places – I am the education spokesperson – we see that the next biggest issue in my constituency is affordability. When it comes to the energy crisis and what is going on in people's homes, I note that renewables, solar and all these things are absolutely beyond the budget of many of the people I speak to regularly.

People are telling me that they cannot afford their groceries or get an appointment with the doctor. They also tell me that they cannot get a hospital appointment or are left on a waiting list for a very long time. Children and young people with mental health difficulties cannot get an opportunity to meet staff from child and adolescent mental health services, CAMHS. There are no appropriate school places for children and people cannot afford rent. All of this is creating a lot of crisis and a lot of difficulty for people.

The Social Democrats are not just a party that points out what is wrong. We also give solutions. We have done this regularly since I joined Dáil Éireann. Indeed, the parliamentary party did this before I became a member of it. I am not taking all the credit. Today, we are bringing forward another motion that outlines our proposal for how the people of Ireland can be supported with regard to the energy crisis we are in.

We need a timely conversation about the fact that we really need to move from fossil fuels to renewables. People cannot afford to do so, so we need to do what we can to make sure every household is able to access renewables. My colleague Deputy Jennifer Whitmore has introduced the Solar for All plan, and that plan includes a doubling of the grant for solar installation to €3,600 and the inclusion of solar panels in the warmer homes scheme. That will yield an average benefit of €450 for a family. That is what it will save. It is a practical plan and something that we need to implement in order to reach our environmental targets and help people throughout the country with energy costs.

What we see is that only people with additional incomes are able to afford solar panels. Solar panels are so easy to install and they give immediate results, so we need to harness that. We are an island. If the Minister has ever gone to the west of Ireland, as I am sure he has, he will know that if you stand on a cliff edge there, you will nearly be blown over. I am really at a loss as to why we do not use that wind power to power our schools, homes, businesses and hospitals.

Every day, I am contacted by families worried about costs. As education spokesperson, I really do have to say that although we have primary and secondary school education systems that are supposed to be free, people are worried about the increased cost of school transport. I am absolutely delighted to see that there are free books at primary and secondary levels, but people are now having to fork out for tablets that cost up to €700. We had the college fees debacle in September and October, but I will not go back into that today.

This motion is very practical. We have solutions, and I ask the Minister to listen to us.

Deputy Aidan Farrelly

I thank the Minister for being here. The collective complacency of this Government has truly been astonishing. It might have survived the confidence motion yesterday but it certainly lost something. It lost some credibility. When we look back on yesterday, we will regard it as the beginning of the Government losing its mandate.

Less than two years ago, the Government went to the people of Ireland promising change and meaningful action on the issues that affected people's lives, but in truth things are getting worse. The Government told us that when it came to the cost of living, housing, homelessness, healthcare, education and childcare, change would happen and that it would listen. While the Government has gone about prioritising the EU Presidency and chasing policy ambitions that it has never campaigned on, it has wilfully ignored promises it made and the people to whom it made them. Somehow, the Government tells us to have patience with its social policy as it continuously fails us, while in tandem working to ensure investment funds have the perfect conditions to maximise profit. It seems that the Government only listens to them.

The Government does not listen to us. It pretends to listen on the doorsteps. It continuously ignores academic and organisational expertise.

It has been an expensive week for this Government but every week is an expensive week for people in our country. The Government's latest €500 million package will leave no legacy. It will make very little to no difference at all to families who have to continue choosing between heating and eating. Once again, it proves who this Government is actively listening to and who this Government chooses not to listen to.

I am asking the Government to listen to the Social Democrats today. The Minister could introduce an emergency relief for struggling people and families by way of an energy credit. He could listen to the merits of Deputy Whitmore's Solar for All plan. My worry is that while there are many things the Government could do to follow through on those long-forgotten election promises, many players in this Government are too busy fighting among themselves. They are no longer the parties that have their ears to the ground, but instead have their heads buried in the sand as to what reality is. Targeted measures for those who need them most, for those whom we all claim to represent, for those whom the Government claims to govern, are what are needed now, but this Government is not listening, exacerbating even further our worsening collective complacency.

Deputy Eoin Hayes

The stories on the front pages of the newspapers this morning were not about ordinary people dealing with the cost-of-living crisis. No, there are no front pages given to the pensioner at home struggling to keep their home warm, the disabled person taking the now hours-long trip to a hospital for dialysis because they can no longer afford to do it at home, the single mother skipping meals to feed her children or the dad tearing his hair out as he sees rent drain his family's bank account yet again. These stories are nowhere to be seen today. They are drowned out by the lamentations of a Minister of State who presided over all of it, who voted for all of it, and at the last moment resigned from the Government to get his moment on the front page of every newspaper in the country. People say they are cynical about politics. Too often, they have every right to be. A budget in 2026 cutting disabled people's incomes by €1,400 was not enough for the resignation of a Minister of State. A repeated refusal to introduce an emergency payment for disabled people was not enough to lose that former Minister of State's vote. Nor was it enough for the Government to adjust its spending by 1 cent.

The repeated callousness and hypocrisy of this Government extended to its failures t introduce targeted measures in its package yesterday. There are no energy credits for the most vulnerable. There is no strong progress on domestic renewable energy. There are no plans that reverse poverty, only plans that deepen it. Of the €750 million fuel packages announced in the last four weeks by this Government, less than 10% was targeted at the most vulnerable, with a €150 extension of the fuel allowance in a time when electricity and gas bills were climbing by hundreds of euro. That is why we have brought forward this motion - to bring targeted relief to ordinary people across the country, including a targeted €400 energy credit for families earning less than €70,000 and helping people cut their energy costs with increased solar grants.

The Government has repeatedly said it wants to target the most vulnerable, yet it has been lacking. It has repeatedly said it cannot do everything, yet it pulled out all the stops yesterday. It has repeatedly ignored the pleas of 320,000 households in energy bill arrears, of disability organisations and of the most impoverished. What should I say to those people now, Minister? What should I tell them about their Government? What should I tell them about their representatives? Should they buy a tractor and blockade a port and then they might be listened to? Should they join with a despicable far-right rhetoric to be taken seriously? Should they threaten a rising in Kerry to take the scalp of a Minister of State? When will this Government listen to the most in need in our society? When will it act for them? I urge the House to support this motion to alleviate energy costs for the people who most need it.

Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment (Deputy Darragh O'Brien)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"notes that, the Government:

— remains deeply concerned about the conflict in the Middle East and Gulf;

— affirms Ireland's long track-record of support for international law and the United Nations;

— continues to seek de-escalation through dialogue and diplomacy so that these issues can be resolved;

— is acutely aware of the impact on households and businesses of the recent increases in fuel prices, and is actively monitoring the current geopolitical situation and developments in energy markets;

— affirms that energy affordability is a priority for this Government; and

— highlights that action has been taken to help households and businesses with the cost of fuel and energy by introducing one of the most comprehensive support packages in the European Union;

affirms that:

— the practical measures introduced by Government on 12th April include:

— a reduction in excise on diesel by a further 10 cent (including Value-Added Tax (VAT)) bringing the total reduction on diesel to 32 cent;

— a reduction in excise on petrol by a further 10 cent (including VAT) bringing the total reduction to 27 cent (including VAT);

— a reduction in excise on marked gas oil (green diesel) by a further 2.4 cent bringing the total to 7.4 cent (including VAT);

— a deferral of the planned increase in carbon tax, scheduled for 1st May until October 2026; and

— the reductions in excise include the National Oil Reserves Agency levy reduction (announced in March) and will take effect from midnight on 14th April and run until 31st July, 2026;

— Government will also be establishing a new Road Transporters Support Scheme as well as supports for coach operators providing local link services, at a cost of €40 million per month for three months;

— a comprehensive €100 million Fuel Subsidy Support Scheme to assist farmers, agricultural contractors and fishers will be put in place;

— this package of supports is in addition to the measures announced in March, which included:

— an expansion of the diesel rebate scheme, backdating it to January, to help sectors of the economy most impacted by the rise of fuel costs; and

— an extension of the fuel allowance season to help the most vulnerable with the cost of home heating;

— a range of protections are in place for customers experiencing difficulties in paying their bills, anyone who is struggling with their bill is strongly encouraged to engage with their supplier and suppliers will not disconnect customers that engage with them;

— the four biggest energy retailers have confirmed that hardship funds and focused measures are in place for any customers in difficulty;

— switching supplier or plan could save the average electricity customer up to €500 annually; and

— the Department of Social Protection can also provide support through the Additional Needs Payment to help households meet expenses, including those who face difficulties with fuel bills; and

further notes that:

— successive Budgets have provided targeted support to help households with cost-of-living pressures;

— on 11th March, Ireland agreed to participate in an International Energy Agency (IEA) release of international strategic oil reserves to address supply issues resulting from the conflict, Ireland's contribution to the IEA 400-million-barrel release is 1.6 million barrels (equating to approximately 10.5 days of supply);

— in Budget 2026, key measures included the largest ever increases to Child Support Payments, higher income thresholds for the Working Family Payment, and expanded access to the Fuel Allowance and Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance;

— recent data from the Central Statistics Office's Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2025, published on 11th March, shows a welcome reduction in the child Consistent Poverty rate in 2025 from 8.5 per cent to 7.8 per cent, demonstrating the impact of Government measures to date;

— Government has also established the National Energy Affordability Taskforce (NEAT) to identify, assess and implement measures that will enhance energy affordability for households and businesses while delivering key renewable commitments and protecting security of supply and economic stability;

— a dedicated NEAT subgroup is being established to monitor global and national energy supply, with a separate subgroup to advise on appropriate demand-side responses;

— the Solar PV Scheme operated by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland has gone from strength to strength in recent years, with increased budget allocations from carbon tax revenues year on year allowing for more households to avail of the support available;

— the Government remains committed to ensuring that low-income households benefit from Ireland's renewable energy transition and will continue to explore how best to integrate solar and other technologies into our energy poverty retrofit programmes;

— in the long run, the best way to protect Ireland from the impact of international fossil fuel prices is to reduce our dependence on them;

— Ireland is undergoing a renewables-led energy transformation, electricity generation from renewables has increased fivefold since 2005, the milestone of over 2GW (gigawatts) of installed solar capacity was achieved in November;

— offshore wind capacity is also being prioritised, with the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, announcing the acceleration of the National Designated Maritime Area Plan (DMAP) for offshore renewable energy, which will identify sites for additional renewable energy development; and

— €3.15 billion of the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund is being provided to help achieve carbon reductions and environmental and nature objectives, this includes funding to the Department of Transport to support low-carbon transportation, and €500 million to the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment to support climate mitigation and renewable energy development.".

I thank the Social Democrats for tabling this motion. It is undoubtedly timely and a lot of this was debated yesterday. The Government won the confidence motion, but I just want to assure Deputies that no one in government is telling people everything is all right. That is not the case. People and families are struggling, unquestionably, and not just in Ireland. It has been recognised as a global crisis.

I would like to address some of the specific items raised in the motion. I recognise it as a genuine attempt to feed into the debate and policy in this area. I assure Deputies that I have listened and I am here to listen to what is being brought forward.

In my response I would like to tell Deputies about the changes, particularly in renewables, and where we are going because I am wedded to the acceleration of renewables and we are seeing good progress in that space. To Deputy Hayes I would say that I am not responsible for who writes headlines, so I am not responsible for the media. He was lamenting the fact that certain things were covered in the newspapers today. That is one thing that the Government cannot be blamed for.

We all know the consequences of the conflict in the Middle East, and we have seen a greater shock in relation to oil and gas prices than we have seen since the 1970s. That is on top of what we have seen in the war in Ukraine and the massive spikes in inflation and elevated prices that we have seen since then. Again, these issues are not unique to Ireland. This Government is charged to respond in kind and endeavour to lessen the impact of those cost increases on families and citizens across the country. We recognise very clearly that this crisis for families and businesses is a very severe one, and that is why we have to deploy our resources in a sustainable and targeted way.

I want to run through some of those measures. Practical supports were brought forward on 12 April. These were: a reduction in excise and diesel by a further 10 cent to an overall reduction of 32 cent; a further 10 cent with regard to petrol, 27 cents in total; a reduction in excise duty on marked gas, 7.4 cent in total; a deferral of the planned increase in the carbon tax scheduled for 1 May until October and reductions of a further 2 cent in the National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, levy up to 31 July. The supply chains are critical and these are normal businesses. I engaged directly with the hauliers and the coach sector in advance of any of the protests. I have been working through this with them for a number of weeks. I met the Irish Road Haulage Association, IRHA, on Good Friday and engaged directly with its representatives. We have now been able to establish a scheme of €40 million per month in fuel supports for the next three months that is very targeted at the SME sector within our supply chain. That is €120 million over a three-month period. There is another €100 million in a fuel subsidy support scheme to assist the very farmers, agricultural contractors and fishers Deputy Cairns spoke about. That has also been announced and will be deployed to give real cash payments to assist productive sectors, particularly food production, but also in the supply chain that are critically important to that. They are on top of additional measures that were taken, such as expansion of the diesel rebate scheme. The extension for a further four weeks of the fuel allowance, which has been referenced, is very important. What has not been referenced heretofore is that a quarter of the households in the country receive a direct payment through the fuel allowance scheme because we have expanded that to the working family payment. We are talking about 470,000 homes of those who need it most.

If we look at the overall package, these are big numbers and we have to see how they are deployed down. It is a fact that the intervention we have made of €755 million on behalf of our people is the largest in Europe on a per capita basis and is actually numerically one of the largest, too. It is about seven times that of Germany and nearly 15 times that of Poland. It is significant, but we do retain the flexibility to respond further.

On budget measures, critically, a raft of social welfare changes were made, particularly to support carers on child support payments. I will not go through them all here, but on carers allowance the income disregard has increased from €375 to €1,000 for a single person and from €750 to €2,000 for a couple. The income limit for carers benefit will increase by €375 to €1,000 per week.

That change takes effect from July this year. They are measures that many campaigned on. We campaigned on them and were elected and are part of Government and we will make good on those on those commitments.

We also saw broad increases in the last budget of €10 per week to maximum personal payment rates benefiting pensioners, people with disabilities, carers and lone parents. There were proportional increases for people receiving a reduced payment rate and qualified adults. These changes took place from January of this year. That was in advance of the outbreak of this war. Most will understand that we have to manage the resources of the State in a careful and sustainable way. We have also increased fuel allowance by €5.35 per week and extended it to those on the working family payment.

I am pleased today to be able to have this discussion around renewables. Ireland has got to accelerate renewables further. We are the number one in Europe at integration of renewables into our grid. It is fine to be critical. I get that and that is political discourse but we also need to recognise how quickly we have moved. In 2015, just over ten years ago, 19% of our electricity came from renewable sources; last month was 49%. Solar is up to about 4% and that is increasing at a really significant rate. The suggestion for the expansion of solar is a good one that I am happy to look at in more detail.

With effect from 1 March, I have made significant changes to the retrofitting grant. Many of the Deputies and their colleagues were at the briefing I gave along with the SEAI in the audiovisual room. The purpose of that is to make sure that the grants are accessible to people, particularly those on middle incomes. Those on lower incomes can access the warmer homes scheme, which I will talk about in a moment. Looking at how we have broken those grants down, it is now a retrofitting passport. For the 250,000 homes that have already been retrofitted, including 53,000 in 2025, that provides resilience for those households against future energy shocks and reduces dependency on fossil fuel.

I agree with what the Deputies have said in the debate that we need to do more on that, and I intend to. This year I am targeting 73,000 homes with the money we have from the carbon tax. To be fair, the carbon tax is something the Social Democrats believe in because it is ring-fenced for retrofitting measures, not just for households but also for businesses. There were 4,000 business grants last year for retrofitting of businesses to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs. Households are making permanent savings of up to €500 per annum.

I got the most up-to-date figures in advance of this debate. These figures just came in in March. Since we changed them, many more people are accessing them. Between March 2025 and March 2026, roof insulation increased by 81%. There has been a 95% increase in heat pump applications. That is because we have increased that grant to €12,500. That is a major cost reduction for people once they get the heat pump working in their home. There has been a 62% increase between March 2025 and March 2026 in cavity wall insulation and we need to do more.

On the warmer homes scheme, we have done about 33,000 homes. I want to see us, through the SEAI, reducing the turnaround time from application to completion of work. They are 100% grant aided. It is for those in energy poverty or at risk of energy poverty and it works very well. It is a deep retrofit which entails a lot of work but I think we can improve the timelines and I am committed to doing that.

On the solar grant side of things, over 8 GW of renewable energy is integrated in our grid. Over 1 GW of rooftop solar in this country is not grid connected. Last year 33,000 homes accessed grants for solar and I want to increase that further. If I can accelerate that by changes to it, I am very open to looking at it. They are permanent savings, reducing our dependency on fossil fuel. By any fair assessment, we are doing well on that. Last year was good and we will have a significant increase this year. If we need policy changes to accelerate that, I am open to that. Grants for solar for medically vulnerable people are available. We have seen that deployed in the hundreds last year. I want to do that in the thousands.

I thank the Social Democrats for the motion, giving us an opportunity to debate this in a calm and civilised way. I appreciate that too. I have moved the countermotion but I am certainly open to looking at other aspects of the solar scheme to see how we can deploy more.

Deputy Jennifer Whitmore

I want to be really clear. The Minister talked about the increase we have seen in renewables. I accept we have seen a large increase but the reality is that is not going to households. That renewable energy is going straight into data centres which are paying half what domestic users are expected to pay for their electricity. So, this is not a good news story for Irish households. It means the Government is prioritising large corporations accessing energy at half the price that individuals have to pay and risking energy security at the same time. Let us not paint this picture that Ireland is a renewable heaven for domestic users; it really is not. The benefits of renewable and the benefits of investment are going straight to data centres. The Government is trying to assist them even further by bringing in the private wires Bill which would essentially set up an alternative private electricity grid to enable data centres to access more renewable energy while leaving domestic homes at a loss. Let us be clear about that.

One million homes in Ireland are suitable for solar panels. A mere ten panels could save the average home €450 a year in electricity costs. It is really simple to put solar panels on a home; it takes a matter of hours. When talking about energy poverty and providing energy resilience, solar panels are really a no-brainer for a government to deploy. I do not understand why the Government has not done more in this space. At the moment approximately 150,000 homes have solar panels installed and that is welcome. However, the reality is that those 150,000 homes are homes that could afford to install solar panels. They are probably the homes that can afford to withstand the energy shocks as a result of what is happening in Iran and Ukraine much better than many other homes. The Social Democrats want every person in this country to be able afford to access solar panels so that they can benefit from having cheaper electricity and be protected from energy shocks as the global system turns upside down.

That is why we have brought in our policy, solar for all. Really importantly with our policy we want to give free solar for people who are on the warmer home scheme. These are people currently at risk of energy poverty. They are people who get disability allowance, carer's allowance and fuel allowance. The Government needs to roll out an intensive scheme to assist those homes.

We also want to see the doubling of grants for households. Many working families are struggling just to keep their head above water even where both partners are working. They are doing everything right and they still cannot get ahead. It is really important that those people can access schemes like the solar panel scheme. For the life of me, I do not understand why the Government cut the grants to those schemes which were so beneficial to people.

We also want to see the grants for batteries reinstated because that means that people can actually charge up the batteries when electricity rates are cheaper at night. It just makes sense. We also need to see plug-in solar for apartments. Thousands of people are living in apartments in this country and they have no access to solar. I ask the Minister to look at our policy. He should take it at face value and actually consider it.

Deputy Sinéad Gibney

I thank the Minister for being here this morning. I am very proud to support this motion. It embodies what the Social Democrats stand for - targeted supports which support the people in society who most need them at this point of crisis right now, and a long-term vision for how we can work our way out of these crises and inoculate ourselves as a State against the next one to come along.

While I appreciate the Minister acknowledging our calm and civilised manner in the delivery of this motion, I can tell him that we are as enraged as the constituents we represent at this Government's continued failure to deal with the cost-of-living crisis that is reaching is every single life in this country.

I am going to read to the Minister something from my inbox this week.

Many, including myself, are living from one wage to the next with little financial security. As a single mother, I do not qualify for support such as the fuel allowance or back to school schemes due to strict means testing criteria that do not reflect the true cost of living after tax. People in my position are working hard yet still struggling daily to afford basic necessities such as food, electricity and heating. We feel overlooked and forgotten despite our efforts to contribute positively to society.

The Minister in his statement spoke about a task force for the renewables space, which is welcome, of course, but people are sick of hearing about task forces, strategies and reports. They want meaningful change in their lives and it is not coming. Another thing that was lacking in the Minister’s statement was mention of energy poverty. That was something the Department spoke about a number of years ago but all we hear now is energy affordability. The Minister is denying the lived reality of many people in society who simply cannot pay for heating anymore - the 300,000 households which are in arrears. Those people are not being helped by the many, many statistics the Minister quoted. Yesterday, I listened to the contributions from the Minister’s benches on both the motion of confidence and the financial resolutions. In particular, I listened to the Minister, Deputy Calleary, who spoke about the real harsh realities that we as a State and we as a globe facing. Despite the constant narrative from this Government that we do not understand, we are well aware there is no magic money tree. It is not about what we are spending as a State that we are so enraged at but how we are spending it. The Government simply relies on market solutions. Where it spends money is easing it for private sector contributions which it expects will help citizens but which is failing again and again to do so.

Deputy Rory Hearne

It is extremely frustrating to come back in here and put forward these proposals. We put forward key, targeted proposals for the budget last year and the Government completely ignored them. The Government has thrown its hands up and said the cost-of-living crisis is down to an international situation. It is blaming global oil prices for the cost-of-living crisis but the reality is core aspects of this cost-of-living crisis are down to the Government’s own policies.

What did the Government do just two months ago in the middle of this cost-of-living crisis? It allowed rents to be increased further for institutional investors and corporate landlords. Record rents were allowed to be increased even higher. After households pay their bills, rents and mortgages, in this country, how many children are in poverty? One in four of every child in this country is living in poverty after their family pays their rent or their mortgage and the Government says its policies are working and it is doing all it can. This is an absolute failure. In one of the so-called wealthiest countries in the world, 320,000 children live in poverty and the Government has increased rents. It has done nothing to stop house prices rising even more and acts as if this cost-of-living crisis has nothing to do with it when fundamental parts of it are because of its policies. We in the Social Democrats have put forward solution after solution which the Government has ignored. That is why people across this country are so angry and frustrated and we are too.

We need a policy change - a dramatic change - and we need investment in our future so that we do not leave ourselves in this situation again. We need investments in solar panels and in renewable energy, and not hand it over to the private market and leave it to the private market in terms of who can and who cannot afford it. The State has to lead because there is massive inequality in this country between those who can afford the solar panels, renewable energies and the EV cars and those who are stuck in mouldy, damp properties. They cannot afford the rent or solar panels. It is not acceptable and the Social Democrats do not accept it. We believe there is a much better way. That is why we put forward this motion and we will continue to push it.

Deputy Pa Daly

I thank the Social Democrats for introducing this motion here today. We know energy prices have risen by 11% in a single month and 12% over the past year but the Government’s response to that has been nothing short of paralysis. At the same time wholesale energy prices have collapsed. They are 72% lower than their peak in 2022. With the commercial mandate, as sure as night follows day, price gouging is inevitable but the Government has left the regulator toothless. It refused to regulate the standing charges and it refused to rein in the hedging.

We have had legislation on this for the past four years but the Government has completely ignored it. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis the energy credits were pulled. That is not a mistake - it is a political choice by this Government. At the same time, the price of petrol and diesel have surged. People, particularly rural areas, who rely on home heating oil have been left to hang out to dry because the price of that home heating oil has doubled.

Let us be clear about who has been protected. Households are fleeced but data centres are getting sweetheart deals. Families are paying 6% to 8% more in network charges while the biggest energy users are let off scot-free. That is clearly unfair. On top of this, people who cannot afford renewable alternatives are punished by the regressive carbon tax which, no matter what anyone says, is not working. The cost of home heating oil has spiked by 70% in the past month alone.

There is another path. Sinn Féin has laid it out clearly: reintroduce the emergency electricity credits; scrap the carbon tax increase; cut excise on petrol and diesel by 25% a litre at the pumps; remove excise entirely from home heating oil; strengthen the regulator to end the price gouging once and for all; and make data centres page fair share.

Deputy Louise O'Reilly

Energy poverty is on the agenda now. It is really welcome to see that other parties now recognise what Sinn Féin has been saying for a very long time but that is why I was really disappointed to see the Social Democrats and the Labour Party back the Government last night in locking in carbon tax increases right up to 2030. In the middle of a cost-of-living crisis and energy poverty crisis, the very least that people should be able to expect of their representatives is that they will not use their vote in here to make matters worse for ordinary people who are really struggling.

Yesterday afternoon we heard the cost of energy prices being attributed to the US, Israel, Iran and even the pandemic but the reality is that Government has had the means to insulate vulnerable people from this shock. It simply chooses to give the money to data centres, developers and anyone else it thinks is big enough to warrant a tax break or support but it is certainly not for the ordinary man and woman. Before there was even a mention of the US and Israel declaring war on Iran or access to the Strait of Hormuz being limited, over 340,000 households were in energy arrears. Figures from EnergyCloud show the full picture which is there are an additional 220,000 households which are cold in their homes. They turn off their heating and are terrified of getting into debt. They remember what the crash feels like and they turn off their heating. They are cold in their homes. The Minister knows this because he sees them as well as I do.

People are sick to the back teeth of his excuses. He blames the Opposition, the global economy and you blame the protesters. He should get a mirror, have a look in it and see where the blame lies.

Deputy Mark Ward

I make no apologies for voting no confidence in this Government last night. It was the right thing to do. There is never a wrong time to do the right thing. It is a pity that some Independent TDs put their own political ambitions before the needs of ordinary workers and families. Ordinary workers and families have lost confidence in the Government. The Government is not listening. It still has not taken the necessary steps to make fuel affordable at the pumps.

It did nothing on home heating oil. The ordinary workers did not want to protest over the last couple of weeks. They did not want to take to the streets. They wanted to be able to get to work, but the Government left them with no choice. It did not listen. It refused to engage. Instead of de-escalating the situation, it made things worse. All they wanted was dialogue, but the Government threatened ordinary citizens with the Army.

Yes, the protests were about fuel and the Government's mismanagement of the cost-of-living crisis, but the cost-of-living crisis is only the tip of the iceberg. When the cost of living is put on top of the multitude of Government failures, it was the straw that broke the camel's back. We have record homelessness, rents and house prices are going through the roof, and people with disabilities are €1,400 worse off this year than they were last year. Children are waiting on life-changing interventions like scoliosis surgery, assessments of need and mental health supports in CAMHS. The Government promised €200 per month for childcare. Where is it?

I only have a couple of minutes to speak today, but I could go on and on about Government failures. Last night, Sinn Féin proposed an alternative, fairer solution to tackle rising energy costs, but again, the Government chose half measures. This Government is out of touch and running out of time.

Deputy Cathy Bennett

I stood with the people yesterday, and I voted no confidence in the Government. People protesting over fuel prices appreciate that the Irish Government is not responsible for the international crisis. People were protesting because when a crisis occurs, they expect their Government to have their backs. Twice now, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, alongside the so-called Independents, have made an absolute hames of it, and the country is so disappointed in them. They could have cut diesel by the maximum amount possible, but they did not. They could have removed excise, including the carbon tax on home heating oil, but they did not.

That is where that frustration is coming from. People are struggling to heat their homes. Farmers, hauliers and coach operators simply cannot afford to absorb this shock within already very slim margins. The frustration has already been fostered by the Government because even for the paltry measures it has taken, it had to be brought kicking and screaming into this Chamber. Petrol and diesel are set to hit record prices, and home heating oil is already there. Energy credits have been pulled for over 300,000 households already in arrears on electricity bills. There has been a €1,400 cut for people with disabilities, who are not getting their energy credits.

Despite the miserable measures, does the Minister think the people have it easy? The time for half measures is long past. If the Government wants farmers to be able to produce food, hauliers to be able to bring food to our villages and bus operators to bring people to the shops, then we need the Government to stand up and stand with the people. Sinn Féin has outlined how we could achieve the cuts to fuel prices that we have advocated for. The question for Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil TDs is: why not?

Deputy Ann Graves

The Government may have won the confidence vote yesterday, backed by Independents, but I can assure the House that I and the public have lost all confidence in it. The Government still has not taken the necessary steps to make fuel affordable at the pumps, and it did nothing on home heating oil. This is despite the fact that heating oil has hit the highest price on record. The last-minute proposed package does not go far enough. Coach companies do not know what the support scheme offers them. Where are the details of the direct payments? Households are struggling. They have to deal every day with a cost-of-living crisis. Fuel, food, rent and heating have all spiralled out of control. There has been an increase in school bus prices, which are up from €50 to €100 for primary students, and from €75 to €100 for post-primary students. Families look to the Government during tough times for leadership, and there is none. Some 320,000 people cannot afford their electricity, and 25% cannot afford to pay their gas bills. Everyone else is running just to stand still.

Sinn Féin brought forward legislation over a month ago to reduce the cost of petrol, diesel, green diesel and home heating oil. We called for the maximum reduction for everyone, directly at the pumps, but the Government opposed these common-sense measures. We needed an immediate 25 cent off the price of diesel and petrol. The Government’s miserly offer was swallowed up in days. Sinn Féin proposed the removal of excise, including the carbon tax, on home heating oil. We also called for the maximum cut to excise, including the carbon tax, on green diesel.

The Government created a situation where people felt ignored, so they took to the streets in protest. This was like the Right2Water mark II, but they were met not by a government willing to engage, but with pompous lectures and finger-wagging. The Taoiseach totally underestimated the level of anger towards this Government. Every day in my constituency office, I have individuals and representatives calling in. It is the Minister's constituency as well. He needs to do better.

Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward the motion and allowing us the opportunity to speak about the people who have been left behind. The Minister is still not listening. He is certainly not listening to the people in rural Ireland. I will tell him about the plumber I met at the protest on Monday morning in Ballina. These are the same protests that the Government is trying to condemn, and write to Coimisiún na Meán about to tell it to reel them in and to cover this differently, and all of that, in order to control the media in relation to the protesters. That plumber told me that he has been called out time and again each day, when oil tanks in houses are airlocked. The reason they are airlocked is that people have to buy drums of oil for €30, put that in to last a day or two, and then go back and get another drum. He asked how he can charge them a callout fee when they barely have the €30 for the drum of oil to keep the house heated. That is the reality for too many people in rural Ireland. We absolutely feel it. There are over 700,000 people who are reliant on home heating oil. They feel completely left behind because they cannot heat their homes. That is why I support this motion.

Regarding the energy credit, how the Government managed to spend €9.4 billion in the last budget and still leave so many people behind, and leave people with disabilities €1,400 a month worse off, is mind-boggling. Then, the Government hits them again. Energy credits have to be given to people, not least the 320,000 people who are already in arrears with their electricity bills. The Minister needs to listen, and he also needs to listen to the home helps.

Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú

The reality is that this Government is not into listening, and there is no confidence out there. It should be very worrying for the Government if any of them were on the protests. We had supporters of Independents and some people who probably never voted before, but also a huge number of people who would have supported the Government partners over generations. You could feel the anger of people who felt they had been absolutely let down. The only way to say it is that the Government, in particular the Taoiseach, managed to put fuel on the fire and stoke the whole thing up in the middle of last week. It showed an element of ineptitude in not realising just how angry people were. These are people who did not want to be out on protests.

Let us look at the reality. It is about the cost of fuel. We all accept that this was started by Donald Trump and genocidal Israel, but it is about what the Government did not listen to and did not do. It is about not realising that there are 700,000 households across this State that use kerosene, yet there is nothing in the package for them. We all know the issues for agricultural contractors, farmers and hauliers. They would say that they have had issues for years, and this was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Bus and coach operators would say that there are supports for some but not for others. None of this is good enough.

There has been an absolute failure to do at the pumps what needs to be done. It is about green diesel, petrol and diesel. None of it was sufficient. We could have seen a 25 cent reduction in diesel and petrol, but the Government was not interested and did not listen. It is absolutely out of time in relation to where the people are at the present.

Deputy Paul Donnelly

If we ever needed evidence that the Government is out of touch, then the protests, supported by a huge majority of people in two polls over the weekend, are a wake-up call for this Government.

Unfortunately, the vote is over. However, the fight for fairness for workers and families goes on. We know from yesterday's vote that this Government is not for the people. Here is a message for the people: the next chance they are going to get is in the upcoming by-elections. They will have a chance to give their view and use their voice. I ask everyone to turn out and show how sick and tired they are of this Government.

The Minister is one of the main people talking about solutions. When motions like this are put forward, solutions are put forward time and again. Does the Government ever take them on board? It never does, but the Minister still goes on about how there are no solutions from those on this side of the House. We will give them - 25 cent off the price of diesel, the complete removal of excise duty, including carbon tax, on home heating oil, and a maximum cut to excise duty, including carbon tax, on green diesel. In the medium to long term, we will talk about renewable energies. The Government is going to do what it always does, namely sell it off to private industries. What will those industries do? Like the energy companies and all the developers in this country, they will profiteer. If the Minister really wants to solve the problem, he should keep renewable energy in State ownership and make sure that the people profit rather than the profiteers.

The Minister talked about how we are going to pay for this. Under the sweetheart deal agreed by Fine Gael, the banks paid less than 1% on over €3 billion in profits last year. Taxing them would cover it. The Government gave developers €250 million for apartments they were already building. The State had a €12.5 billion surplus last year, €2 billion over what the Government had projected. There is where the money is coming from, and this so-called magic money tree. It is there. Support the people.

Deputy Johnny Mythen

I thank the Social Democrats for tabling this motion. Many of the measures in the motion align with proposals Sinn Féin has previously brought before this House, including energy credits and supports. At present, the Irish people are facing unprecedented challenges. They are trying to make ends meet in the face of an ever-expanding cost-of-living crisis. Workers and families the length and breadth of the country are being hammered by soaring prices. If it is not rents, student fees, voluntary contributions or insurance, it is energy bills. Households are bracing themselves for a round of energy price hikes, just like the 700,000 households who depend on kerosene to heat their homes. Over 300,000 people are in arrears on their electricity bills, while the number of people who cannot pay gas bills has soared to over 183,000. This crisis is putting more people in debt, at risk of poverty and in a state of continued anxiety. Ireland already has the eighth highest electricity prices in Europe.

Ireland's crippling energy prices are not inevitable. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have repeatedly ignored, pushed back against and rejected Sinn Féin's and the Opposition's proposals to get prices under some control. They dismissed our calls to overhaul the Government's regressive approach to network charges and the public service obligation levy in order that data centres would have to pay a fair share. Not only have they totally failed to accelerate renewable transition at a pace required, they also continue to prioritise private interests of corporate developers overseas over the interest of people on this island. It does not have to be this way. The Government has shown whose needs it is going to prioritise and who it favours. It is not ordinary citizens.

Enough is enough. The Government cannot detach itself from the reality that the decision to withdraw energy credits and the failure to deliver an effective cost-of-living package is causing hardship and leading to more people falling into arrears. The reality is people are having to work overtime just to keep up with the cost of living because every week things are getting more expensive. The Government must accept that the most vulnerable people, especially people with disabilities, need an immediate cost-of-living package and a reintroduction of energy credits as an emergency measure.

Deputy Louis O'Hara

Since the start of this fuel crisis, and even long before that, the Government has been totally out of touch with the reality that households are facing with rising costs. It has failed to support them. Last week, we saw farmers, contractors and hauliers - ordinary men and women - assemble to peacefully demonstrate their desperation with the rising cost of fuel. They were people who did not want to be out protesting. Many had never protested before, but they felt they had no choice. What was the reaction from Government? It decided to enflame tensions, it refused to talk or engage and it even threatened to send in the Army to deal with peaceful protests. It brought representatives from Galway up to Dublin for talks and then locked them out of the meeting. Those people were told their names were not on the list. It was schoolyard stuff. Every time the Taoiseach and Ministers spoke with disrespect toward ordinary people, the protests grew in size. That is what I experienced in Galway last week. The question I was constantly asked was how the Government could be so clueless and out of touch with those who told it they cannot keep their businesses going or cannot afford to keep their homes heated.

The Government had the chance to reflect on this failure during yesterday’s confidence motion. All we saw, however, was the pure arrogance of the Government when it comes to this crisis. It still does not get it and still is not listening. Those in government stood up in the Chamber yesterday to pat themselves on the back, but the reality here is that they are still continuing with half measures. They had the opportunity to cut the excise duty on home heating oil, but they did not do so. This means that the more than 700,000 households which rely on home heating oil across the State will continue to receive no support, even though the price has doubled. There were half measures in respect of petrol, diesel and green diesel, and carbon tax increases have been locked in until 2030. Has the Government learned absolutely nothing from this? It is clear that it is completely out of touch with the lived reality that households are facing right now. It is totally incompetent when it comes to facing these challenges. The best thing this Government can do is to follow the lead of Deputy Michael Healy-Rae and stand down. It has lost the confidence of the public.

Deputy Ciarán Ahern

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Daonlathaithe Sóisialta as an tairiscint seo a chur chun cinn. Tacóidh Páirtí an Lucht Oibre leis.

One of the greatest risks we face as a country is our overdependence on fossil fuels. The climate crisis is existential. Even if we leave the fact of our dying planet to the side, the surge in prices over the past number of weeks due to Trump and Netanyahu's illegal wars has illustrated in no uncertain terms the financial costs associated with our continued dependence on oil and gas. Maybe we finally have an argument for a switch to renewables that even the climate sceptics will listen to now that their pockets are being impacted.

Time and again, workers here have been expected to absorb the consequences of global geopolitical upheaval through higher petrol prices, higher home heating costs and more expensive commutes. The eruption in frustration and anger that we saw on our streets last week was the result of years of what feels like a perpetual cost-of-living crisis. Unfortunately, the Government has offered next to nothing to households that are struggling to keep up with their energy bills. We know that there are 320,000 households in long-term arrears on their electricity bills. That is 320,000 people unable to cope with the mounting costs of keeping their home running. Figures released to me by the CRU recently have shown that the total value of debt held in arrears by these households is about €185 million. To put that in context, the Government package yesterday for the haulage and farming sectors was worth almost three times the amount it would cost to write off that debt. There was virtually nothing in that package for regular PAYE workers. As usual, they have been left high and dry by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents who remain in government.

The events of recent weeks must serve as a reminder to the Government of the urgency with which we need to transition our economy away from its reliance on imported, intermittent and expensive fossil fuels and towards clean, indigenous renewable energy. Where is the urgency when it comes to developing our offshore wind capacity? We are being left vulnerable to an increasingly unstable geopolitical arena and it is ordinary households that are paying the price. The Government and, in particular, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, talked a lot about energy security, but it is interesting that the approach they have landed on to achieve energy security is to import more LNG - a highly polluting fossil fuel - and drive a stake through our climate and planning Acts in the process. We will not reduce our dependence on fossil fuels by importing more fossil fuels. We will not ensure our security of supply by continuing to rely on volatile and increasingly intermittent fuels. Moreover, the European benchmark price for LNG soared by 60% in the days following the launch of Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war on Iran.

We have been told that developing an LNG facility would cost about €1 billion over the course of a decade, and we need an updated figure on that now from the Minister because, presumably, the Department had not accounted for price fluctuation of as much as 60% when it was doing the maths. We also need transparency from the Government regarding who is going to pay for that. It will not be large energy users like data centres. It will not be our biggest polluters. It will be ordinary households funding it through higher network tariffs and higher bills. They will be paying for it, as always.

Opposition Members on the climate committee have called on the Government to halt this proposal and carry out a new energy security review. In light of the recent events, I reiterate that call in the strongest possible terms. Fundamentally, the only way we are ever going to end this cycle of energy crisis after energy crisis is by ending our dependence on fossil fuels. We cannot perpetually tax cut our way out of them. I spoke last night of my deep disappointment and disgust that of the many different policy options open to the Government to alleviate the cost of energy, it has decided to jettison and dump carbon taxes and the polluter pays principle. I do not know how the Government has not gotten this yet. The only urgency we have seen from the Government from an energy perspective is the attempt to run roughshod over our planning laws in order to speed up the development of the proposed LNG terminal.

Where is that level of commitment when it comes to renewables, developing offshore wind infrastructure and solar energy? Look at what the UK is doing with plug-in solar panels? Where is the necessary level of commitment when it comes to decarbonising our transport sector, electrifying our haulage fleet and making electric cars more affordable for low-income households? This most recent crisis is further proof of the case for moving away from our reliance on fossil fuels. If this Government will not do it for the good of the climate and our environment, it should do it for the good of our constituents - our people who are feeling the consequences of the dependence to which I refer in their pockets.

Deputy Alan Kelly

I thank the Social Democrats for tabling this motion. It is a really good motion. I want to say something to Sinn Féin. Its Deputies have left the Chamber. Last night, those in Sinn Féin, including Deputy Thomas Gould, engaged in an attack on our party. Deputy O'Reilly has done so again this morning in the context of the motion. Those in Sinn Féin did not support the measures that were brought forward to help people who are struggling across the industry last night, which is ironic. They are criticising us for doing so. I do not get that. They are engaging in voodoo economics, and espousing no carbon tax ever, no USC, and no local property tax. Where in the name of God are we going to get taxation revenue from? This is voodoo economics, and it needs to be called out. When seeking an alternative government and partners to serve in such a government, this is a very strange way of going about it.

I do not want to repeat many of the things that have been said. However, I have to say that, politically, the past two weeks have been disastrous for the Government. The Minister of State would probably agree. The measures that were brought in respect of industries that involve high fuel usage were absolutely necessary. How it was not seen that this was necessary previously is beyond me. Where is this going? I will tell you where it is going. It will lead to ordinary workers getting pay increases, and the Labour Party will support them 100% in that regard. The trade unions of Ireland need to be knocking on the Government's door today and saying that people cannot sustain this. Workers, those on fixed incomes and the vulnerable cannot sustain it. The signal that the Government was going wrong started with the budget last year when it took out all the necessary payments to those who are vulnerable and to workers.

The commentary is to the effect that the Government is out of touch. I would like to tweak that. In order to be out of touch with something, you have to be knowledgeable and in touch in the first place. The Government has been neither for a long time. The only people it has been in touch with are those who pressured it into making some ridiculous changes in taxation in the budget. Those who are really affected, who have to deal with grocery inflation of 6.5% and growing, those who have to deal with all the energy issues, including that relating to kerosene, which has been spoken about so often, those who have to deal with higher education costs, which, unbelievably, the Government is pushing through, those who have to deal with increasing medical bills and a range of other issues and those who are rearing families are the ones who I absolutely guarantee will be knocking on the Government's door.

While there were thousands out protesting and while the changes that were brought about relate to high fuel users in particular sectors - and the downstream impact across all other industries in Ireland is so important - it must be remembered that the majority of those who were protesting are just ordinary people. There is literally nothing for them. Any small changes as regards fuel costs will be absorbed within weeks. What is the Government going to do for them? How will it ensure that they are protected? The anger of people will get much worse. They will mobilise - we and the trade unions will help them to mobilise - and they will be knocking on the Government's door. It will not just be a couple of thousand people; it will be hundreds of thousands who will be expressing anger like has never been seen before. It reminds me of the end of the Government that held office between 2007 and 2011, which the Minister of State will remember quite well. That is the level of anger I have seen.

We will need pay increases for workers. We will need energy credits. We will need changes in the context of working from home. We will need changes with regard to public transport costs. We will need maximum price orders. We will need to deal with grocery inflation in a way that it has not been dealt with already. We will need to look at all the extra costs that have been brought in by this Government in the past few months. When a Government believes that bringing in the Army is the solution, rather than dealing with ordinary workers' and ordinary people's concerns, that is not a Government that is out of touch; it is a Government that has lost its mandate.

Deputy Roderic O'Gorman

The reason we are experiencing an energy price crisis in our country is because of Ireland's over-reliance on fossil fuels. Until the Government takes decisions that will break that over-reliance, our economy and our people will continue to be vulnerable. The war in Iran has shown for the second time in four years how our economy is at the mercy of the whims of Putin, of Trump and the Ayatollah. Yesterday's ESRI report reiterates that point. Our high electricity prices are driven by our disproportionate reliance on natural gas, but it also found that renewable energy provides protection against fuel price volatility. Speeding up that move to renewables will give us energy security, it will protect families from higher prices, and it will help our country to decarbonise. On Sunday, the Government announced a huge package of over €500 million to address the fuel price spike being experienced right now. The Green Party believes that Government needs to take similar big, bold steps to ensure that this is the last energy crisis that Ireland ever experiences. Let the response to this crisis be more than just being about getting the blockades lifted.

I want to highlight measures across three broad areas. First, the Government needs to speed up the delivery of offshore wind farms that were successfully bid for during the term of the previous Government. An Coimisiún Pleanála and the Marine Regulatory Authority need additional expert staff so they can more quickly decide on planning applications for offshore wind. The Government also needs to speed up the investment and development of our ports. Right now, Belfast is the only port that could sustain the development of offshore turbines. That needs to change.

We know solar panels on people's roofs and balconies provide immediate savings for households. The Green Party has proposed the introduction of a scheme to provide six free solar panels for every household that gets the fuel allowance, immediately cutting electricity costs for some of the most vulnerable households. As a short-term measure, the Government needs to allow for plug-in solar to be used in Ireland just as it is in the UK and across the EU, giving people without a roof access to the savings of solar energy.

I have two brief points on electric vehicles. The Government should cut VRT on imported electric vehicles. We are developing an industry here. Let that continue to roll out.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

People do not protest because they like protesting. They protest because they feel they have no choice and because their backs are against the wall. That is clearly why the hauliers, contractors and small farmers came out and protested. Their backs are against the wall because they have faced absolutely gigantic hikes in the cost of being able to earn and maintain an income. Because they protested, and only because they protested, the Government has been forced to make some concessions to them, although these are still far short of what the protestors actually asked for, namely price controls. People Before Profit are the only people in this Dáil, even to this day, who have said that we need price controls. I reiterate it and remind the Minister of State that it was a Fianna Fáil Government, in 2007, that brought in the Consumer Protection Act, which states that in a situation of emergency, the Government can act to impose orders to control the price of goods that are affected by that emergency. If this is not an emergency, with the hikes in petrol, diesel, home heating oil, gas, and electricity, then I do not know what an emergency looks like.

This is self-evidently an emergency. It will potentially get worse because of the warmongering of Donald Trump. I seriously hope the people who were cheering on Donald Trump are thinking about it now. The signs were there. He is a property speculator. He made his money from property speculation and now turns out to be a bloodthirsty warmonger as well, whose warmongering is leading to farmers and workers in this country suffering economically as well as death and destruction raining down across the Middle East.

We need the Government to use the legislation that Fianna Fáil introduced in 2007 to impose price controls. The Government cannot leave workers behind. Some 320,000 people are in electricity and gas arrears. The number of those arrears has doubled in the past few years. Workers will fight in the same way as the hauliers did if the Government does not do something serious to address their concerns.

Deputy Paul Murphy

I want to remind the Government that the group which led the way on the cost-of-living struggle until the past week or so was disabled people. Outside the Dáil they again led the Affordable Ireland campaign protest a few weeks ago. Why were they to the fore? It was because they were the ones who were hit hardest in the budget with €1,400 worth of cruel and targeted cuts. For months, despite all of the pleading, protest, argument and stories about people having to choose between heating and eating, the Government ignored their request for a €400 emergency payment so that they could pay their winter heating bills. Instead, the Government lectured disabled people and carers that it had to be responsible and careful with the State finances.

Now suddenly the Government, on a Sunday night, found over half a billion euro down the back of the couch. Some of that will trickle down to workers, disabled people and carers, which is welcome. It would not have happened without the protests. The Minister of State said on "Morning Ireland" that the cuts will be wiped away by the international price of oil going up further, which is as result of Trump and Netanyahu's illegal wars. This cowardly Government has still not condemned Trump or Netanyahu for their wars despite the claptrap about standing up for international law.

It is often said that power comes from the barrel of a gun. In this country, it seems that power comes from the engine of a tractor. The message from the Government is very clear. If people do not take militant protest action, it will ignore their demands no matter how reasonable and justified they are. It does not want to know. The trade unions have to take heed of this as they enter into pay talks. We are in a new phase of militant protest. Workers do not need heavy machinery to force the Government to listen to them. The most effective form of disruptive action is the strike and that is the power that all workers have. If they use that, they can fight not just for higher wages but for universal free public services, real rent controls, increases in social welfare payments and universal measures on the cost-of-living crisis, including breaking with the reliance on fossil fuels which is what has gotten us into this crisis in the first place. The most immediate thing that can be done is free public transport. That could be done tomorrow. It needs to be done.

Deputy Brian Stanley

This is the most serious fuel crisis since the 1970s. I contacted the Minister's office last week and spoke to his good secretary about this, and she passed my concerns on to the Minister. The level of preparedness has been shown to be awfully poor. The response and reaction has not been what was required. There is no mechanism to deal with price gouging. The CCPC needs to be abolished or given some powers because its report this week stated that controlling prices in a competitive market is outside the scope of competition and consumer protection law.

The steps that can be taken have been outlined during this debate. Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Austria have made a call for a joint EU windfall tax, the funds from which could be used to ease pressure on consumers in the face of high energy prices. They also say it would send a clear message to those companies making a profit from the consequences of war. Ireland is not one of the names on that list. I urge the Minister to put Ireland's name to that call and push for this.

Greece went one step further and has put a limit on the amount of profit that can be made at retail and wholesale level. At retail level, the limit is 12 cent per litre. Greece has done that legally; it is a member of the European Union. It has put a five cent per litre limit on wholesale profits. I understand the argument about price gaps and the taxpayer ending up with a big bill. This is a way around this. This can be done. It is a practical measure at no cost to the Exchequer. The Government needs to sort that out.

The move to renewable energy is painfully slow. We have zero offshore wind. Anaerobic digestion is minuscule. Hydro is non-existent. Solar is only starting up. I support the call to improve the grants for solar panels on homes. Progress needs to be made in all of these areas.

Last week, one Minister after another made things worse. The Minister, Deputy O'Callaghan, said he would bring in the Army. People envisaged troops on the streets with guns but what he actually needed was a tow truck. He did not need a big tow truck to move a few pallets on the bridge in Galway. As I said yesterday, a Massey Ferguson 35 with a front loader would have moved the bundle of pallets on the bridge. The comments of the Minister put fuel on the fire. The Government needs to be more careful in future and listen to people.

Deputy Michael Collins

I appreciate Minister of State is here but I thought the Minister for energy would be before us today because the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, is before us every day of the week on every issue. He will soon become Taoiseach of the country. He had a great go at us on RTÉ yesterday. That is part of the game.

This is a very serious issue. I am very critical of the Green Party because it spent four or five years in government and did not move us properly towards renewables and we are now left in a crisis situation. People are in a desperate situation. I received a message last night from a fisherman who told me he was out at sea for 14 days, which cost him €31,000 in fuel. The Minister knows the crisis situation with regard to fisheries. The few days fishermen can go out costs them more. The same person to whom I referred employs 33 people and is worried about how they will pay their workers never mind pay for fuel.

Fuel protests over the past few weeks should tell us that people all over the country are hurting. People cannot afford the never-ending taxing of everything. We need to do something about the cost of heating. There needs to be some type of package for the regular householder, the middle man and woman who cannot fill their oil tanks. People who used to get a fill or half a fill are now buying five gallon drums of heating oil. I ask the Government to seriously consider something for these people.

The Government has spent years piling tax on to diesel, and telling us we have to meet our climate targets and that is climate action while doing very little to reduce harmful emissions. People who depend on diesel have to earn a living. It is about survival. Farmers, hauliers, fisherman and contractors are being punished for using the only fuel that will do the job while practical solutions are ignored or quietly parked.

Hydrotreated vegetable oil, HVO, is a renewable diesel made from waste oil. It works in existing engines. It cuts emissions immediately and does not require people to scrap vehicles or machinery that have years of life left in them. That is common sense climate action but good luck trying to get HVO in Ireland. There is no domestic production, almost no availability and no urgency from the Government to make it accessible to the sectors that need it most.

Separately, there are engine based technologies like hydrogen on demand systems. These are not fuels and do not replace diesel. Rather, they are devices designed to make engines burn cleaner and more efficiently. Whether they succeed or fail should be decided by a proper independent assessment, not by indifference or refusal to engage. People are sick of new ideas being waved away while carbon tax goes up without hesitation.

If this is really about emissions, the focus should be on enabling cleaner fuels like HVO and seriously evaluating technologies that could reduce pollution. This morning, I read that the Chinese are making a plane that can be flown with water instead of fossil fuel. That tells us the world is moving on but Ireland is a laggard in terms of movement on renewables. Technologies could reduce pollution and stop the habit of using taxation as a substitute for solutions. Right now people see more tax, more lectures and very little practical help.

I spoke to the Taoiseach about the Barryroe oil field on Leaders' Questions in 2022 when Eamon Ryan was wagging the tail. In 2026 he says Ursula von der Leyen is wagging the tail and he cannot reopen it. Parties in here say that we cannot have fossil fuels. They are all living in a different space age than I am.

The fact is that, as we have seen in the last few weeks, if anything happens to the link from Moffat in Scotland, we would cease to operate in about a week without fuel. That is the bottom line. What I have always suggested is that we drill off Barryroe and any oil that we get from there would pay for renewables in this country. We could tax them to the hilt to pay for it - not the people but those who are drilling out there - and then put in our renewables. Where are our wind energy and solar panels? If it costs €20,000, you get €1,800 back in a grant. We are not on the real planet here. We are out of touch completely when it comes to solar, retrofitting, HVO, and hydrogen on-demand systems. The price of electric cars is astronomical. Manufacturers promise that cars will do 450 km but when you speak to the service mechanics, they tell us that you would be lucky to get 350 km. We also need to look at battery trucks. The problem is that we are laggards. Countries like China and New Zealand have lorries that run on batteries. They have battery chargers that take ten minutes. I know a gentleman in my area in Schull who has experienced that and worked with it. He keeps asking why we have to wait for the rest of Europe to do it before we might consider it in 15 or 20 years’ time. Where was the vision when the Green Party was in government? It did not deliver for renewables as it was supposed to do.

Deputy Paul Lawless

I want to raise the comments in relation to the Minister with responsibility for the media. When the media covered the protests, they covered the ordinary men and women. The Minister responsible, who holds the purse strings for the media, called for an investigation into the media. What an abuse of ministerial power. This is the most authoritarian thing that we heard in recent days. The truth is that this Government introduced a rescue package in excess of €700 million last year for RTÉ to bail it out. Is this what he paid for - this level of control that he is trying to exert? The truth is that this Government tried to blacken the names of protesters. Then the Government looked to the media to try to support it and spread that propaganda. They were ordinary men and women. That was deeply wrong. I have written to the Chair of the Oireachtas committee on media. The Minister should be hauled in to account for his comments.

The truth is that the Government, and the previous Government of which Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael were a part, have pursued a policy of high energy costs. In fact, embedded in the carbon tax was the intention to increase fuel prices year on year. It was baked into legislation irrespective of the cost. That was the policy, and now it is starting to unravel.

The Minister condemned the protesters for blocking fuel, but it was his Government that banned oil and gas exploration. It made us reliant on the international markets and now it is blaming those international markets for the cost of fuel even though it was the Government's policy to begin with.

We should be focusing on incentivising small-scale renewable energy generation like solar and biodigestion, but there are significant issues in relation to that. Just the other week, I spoke to a farmer who had a biodigester. Even after several months, he still cannot get connected to the grid. Other farmers have applied for the targeted agricultural modernisation scheme, TAMS, grant for solar generation, but just 10% of applications have been successful.

One arm of the Government does not know what the other arm is doing. The Government's policy is totally wrong. It has created this crisis and now it is complaining that the people are raising concerns. It is time that the policy of high energy costs is reviewed.

Deputy Paul Nicholas Gogarty

We are moving the focus in the debate towards solutions for people to reduce their energy bills. I welcome this motion. As I said before, we need to be moving towards giving better grants for solar in households, including in the very short term plug-in solar. You can now go into Lidl in the UK and get some of these, which would cut your bills straight away.

The focus of much of the debate has been on the short-term pressure and how the Government did not respond enough or fast enough to it. We have said that. I first referenced Ronald Reagan's term "voodoo economics" in 2002, talking about the bubble. I said bubble bubble would lead to toil and trouble, and it actually did with the demise of the Celtic tiger. Money does not fall off trees. You only have a certain amount of revenue coming in and you have to work within those constraints.

We have had arguments on different sides of the House about protecting the most vulnerable and where the money should go. The renewables debate is a wartime situation because we are so dependent on fossil fuel imports. The next crisis down the road is going to result in more pain for people. We need to be looking at a wartime situation where we are putting our windfall assets into upgrading the grid and investing in offshore wind, tidal energy, solar and other capacity so that we are net exporters of energy through battery storage and green hydrogen. I am going to say this 50 more times during the lifetime of this Dáil, but we are not actually doing that. We are not ramping up. The Ukrainians could ramp up drone technology because it was an existential crisis for them. It is an existential crisis for the people of Ireland to be so dependent on foreign actors to heat our homes. We need to get real and start putting in that long-term investment.

Deputy Keira Keogh

I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley, for being here today. Like many of the first-time TDs, I have been elected for 16 months. In that time, I have made 1,400 representations on behalf of people all across Mayo. I have met people at weekly clinics in Westport, Achill, Belmullet and Bangor Erris, and more are planned. We have helped people to get the fuel allowance. I welcome the extension into May of the fuel allowance, which means an extra €152. For some people, that fuel allowance is not enough, so we have helped them with the additional needs payment or the supplementary welfare allowance. We have also had many people in who we are helping with the SEAI grants. I am really seeing the difference that new windows and doors or pumped insulation can make.

This past fortnight, I met with different people, ones who have not come to clinics or the office and who have not emailed - families, farmers, hauliers and small business people. They are people I knew were struggling with the cost of living but I did not know just how much they were to the pin of their collar. People were emotional when they were talking to me about the fear at the shop checkout, the petrol pump and when the electricity bill came in.

I acknowledge David Heraty and John Scanlon who, on behalf of 500 people, came to my office this week with a petition with 500 signatures. Those men said they had never been in a TD's office before. I am here today to say I am listening. I understand. I hear the frustration. I hear the fear. I also welcome the many people who took to the streets legitimately. For many, it was the first time that they ever protested because they felt that their voices were not being heard. We hear them loud and clear. We have to ensure that at the next available opportunity, we go further than the €770 million package for working people and small business owners.

Everybody knows this is not a crisis that is only affecting Ireland; it is affecting the whole word. Geographical tensions are causing crises everywhere. We can go back to the invasion of Ukraine and now we have what is going on in the Middle East.

We are under pressure to support our citizens. I acknowledge that the €770 million package is a huge amount of money. For some people, they hear the budgets in terms of billions and €775 million does not sound that much. Speaking as the Chair of the Joint Committee on Children and Equality, I acknowledge the lack of childcare and how much that is causing people to struggle in their households. There was a recent announcement of €135 million over the lifetime of this Government to deliver State-led childcare. When we compare that €135 million with the €775 million, it is going to be swallowed up pretty quickly. It is just putting the amount of money into context. I think €775 million is similar to the whole budget for disability services, so it is a huge amount of money.

In saying that, for some it is still not enough. We must be responsible in trying to respond. The farmers are happy to hear that there is €100 million in this package for them and the hauliers. I hear that they are worried that it is going to be another scheme similar to the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, or TAMS and it is going to be hard to access. We need to make it easy for them.

At the next available opportunity to give back, we have to look at our income tax bands and other ways to give back to the hard-working people of this country. As a Government backbencher, that is what I will be doing for the people of Mayo. I will call for this at every single opportunity.

However, we must insist on responding in a targeted, sustainable and responsible way in the midst of what we are facing globally. Lots of people have come to my office and had conversations with me about solar panels and how they are working. People got grants for solar panels last summer and are now starting to see the bills reducing. We have to keep working to support people to access those kinds of grant.

We must acknowledge that we have made progress. Last month, 45% of our energy was from renewable sources. However, to avoid another crisis like this, we have to push to get that to 80% by 2030. We need to make homes and businesses all across Ireland more sustainable, warmer and cheaper to heat.

I will keep speaking to use the time we have left, if that is okay. I want to talk about public transport. People in Mayo and elsewhere in rural Ireland do not have the luxury of switching off our cars when the price at the pumps gets expensive. We cannot leave the people in rural Ireland exposed. A fantastic initiative was rolled out in Achill this year, TFI Anseo. I want to see that rolled out across Mayo, in Erris, Louisburgh and all rural parts of Mayo. People can use this app or make a phone call to access public transport in real time where there are not bus services every five minutes and where we do not have the Luas and so on.

The Government and its backbenchers have learned an awful lot about communication in the last fortnight. Sometimes, we are doing things well but do not communicate that well. We may also not be communicating well enough how we are using the people's taxes. People are asking us to scrap carbon tax but then you sit down with them and speak about how carbon tax is used for the fuel allowance, the living alone allowance, the working family payment and ACRES. There is an education gap here. People see us talking about millions and billions of euro. We have to make more of an effort to communicate clearly to people and to listen to them.

Every time an international crisis causes prices to spike, it is rural Ireland that takes the hit first and hardest. Speaking for my constituency of Mayo, we have to be at the centre of Ireland's energy future but that energy future cannot just happen to Mayo; it has to benefit Mayo. If turbines are going up, the community should see their bills go down. People in rural Ireland will support change if they see a return for themselves. I will keep pushing for short-term supports and long-term solutions for the people of Mayo.

Deputy Barry Heneghan

Táimid i gcónaí ag caint faoin rud seo. Is é an rud ná nach bhfuilimid ag déanamh an rud is fearr gur féidir linn, go háirithe agus muid ag smaoineamh faoi curtailment and dispatch down. I have spoken about this before. One of the biggest solutions introduced by the German Government, which was a quick fix, was to allow plug-in solar. I have raised this in the Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy and was told that, in 2022, a consultation was done and plug-in solar was deemed dangerous. I have requested details on who said it was dangerous. I presume it was rooftop solar installers who would not like to lose their business. It is a simple fix for the apartment dwellers in north Dublin whom I represent. They could clearly install a system on their balconies, plug it in and have an in-built system that would reduce their energy costs.

I will always give solutions. I will not just say things that can never happen. That is one thing that will help the Irish people regarding our energy security and help with surging costs. At the moment, while we have huge amounts of solar and wind energy, the grid cannot take it. The Minister of State is well aware of this. I welcome the fact that we had a meeting on this. Long-duration energy storage systems, including battery energy storage systems, gravity pumps and green hydrogen, are being established across Ireland. Dr. James Carton, who was a professor of mine, was one of the founding pushers of this and has consulted with the Government but it is not happening fast enough. At the moment, we see a mix of green hydrogen being introduced in the UK. We can establish such a system to reduce carbon emissions and also to reduce costs. If any other country had the seabed and the potential that Ireland has, it would use them to benefit its people. Before the crash, we had huge ambitions to fast-track offshore renewable energy and other renewables. Due to the crash, that all fell through. We are now getting foreign direct investment, FDI, in it but we need to do it in a way that benefits the Irish people. We need to invest more in national security.

If the current energy crisis shows us anything, it is that we need to move away from being a petro-state to being an electro-state. The Germans are doing this way faster than us. We should look at the model they are employing across the board. The Irish people are screaming out for a decentralised grid. They understand that a decentralised grid reduces demand on the grid and that reducing demand on the grid reduces energy costs. In the response to a parliamentary question I recently submitted regarding the dynamics of energy costings, it was shown that, while we had higher grid input from renewables and the customer should be seeing that happening at a faster rate, they are not. The people of my constituency are screaming out for quick solutions. I hope the Minister of State will respond to my point on plug-in solar. I know a lot of countries are looking at small modular reactors to reduce the burden on their people.

I will refer to the private wires Bill. The Government's private wires Bill is welcome but we do not need two regulators. The CRU should be the single sheriff in town to determine if a private wire should be allowed. That is the difference between my Bill and the Government Bill. There are other differences in amendments. I will continue to work on my Bill. I look forward to constructive engagement with the Government, which I have had so far, in this regard. It is a key priority for me and would benefit the Irish people. We cannot allow our energy to be wasted. We cannot allow solar farms in Waterford or Wexford to turn off generation at 11 a.m. and lose energy. We should use everything we can to benefit the Irish people.

Minister of State at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment (Deputy Timmy Dooley)

I thank the Deputies for raising very important issues and matters. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the pressures that households are facing as a result of high energy costs. It is important to say that the Government remains deeply concerned about the conflict in the Middle East, including the Gulf. Ireland has a long track record of support for international law and the UN and we continue to seek de-escalation through dialogue and diplomacy so that these issues can be resolved. The Government is also very aware of and concerned about the pressures placed on households and businesses by the high energy costs arising due to the conflict. Providing supports to alleviate this pressure has been, and will continue to be, a priority.

Recent days have shown more evidence of the Government taking action to help households and businesses with the cost of fuel and energy through the introduction of an additional package of measures. These measures come on foot of Ministers holding a series of constructive meetings with representative groups, culminating in this further significant support package to address the ongoing crisis. As somebody who was involved in those discussions on the Government side, I will pay tribute to the representative bodies, which did their business efficiently and had remained in contact with the Government since the first package of measures was introduced. When that package of measures was introduced, it was hoped it would address the significant impact being felt at the time. However, we all know that international energy prices moved in the intervening period.

The package we introduced on Sunday, which was voted through the House last night, is in addition to the previously allocated €250 million in targeted supports to assist those experiencing real and immediate financial pressure. It is also in addition to the range of measures introduced in budget 2026 that aimed to help households with energy costs. These measures included: an extension of the 9% VAT rate currently applied to gas and electricity, saving households up to €100 million per year; enhanced social protection measures, including an increase in the fuel allowance rate of €38 per week with an expansion in the eligibility rules, which I know from experience in my constituency office brought a lot more people into that support scheme; and a record allocation of €640 million for SEAI retrofit schemes, allowing us to target 73,000 home energy upgrades this year. This includes about €340 million for the warmer homes scheme, which provides fully funded upgrades for those in energy poverty.

While there has not been any increase in the price of household electricity or gas since the conflict began, I note that there are a range of protections in place for customers experiencing difficulties in paying their bills. Anyone who is struggling with their bills is strongly encouraged to engage with their supplier. Suppliers will not disconnect consumers who engage with them. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has engaged with the four biggest energy retailers in recent months to ensure that hardship funds and focused measures are in place for any customers who are in difficulty. That is why I find it difficult to accept the suggestions of some, including a contribution made on the radio this morning, that it was a toss-up as to whether people would heat their home or charge their wheelchair. The situation is stark and grave but we all have a responsibility to share with constituents, consumers and customers that there are supports available, including hardship grants, and that the Department of Social Protection can provide exceptional needs payments in those crisis situations.

Even when things were less complex, those measures were still there. There were people in better times who ran into difficulties for all sorts of reasons. The Department of Social Protection on the ground has flexibility. We need to encourage people who find themselves in those really straitened circumstances to seek the help that is there. In addition, the Department of Social Protection can provide support through that additional needs payment to help all who seek to meet expenses, including fuel bills but also at a wider level.

Structural factors impact on our energy prices. Ireland is import dependent on energy, making it particularly vulnerable to price volatility in the wholesale gas market. Ireland's isolated island location, low levels of interconnection, widely dispersed low density population and reliance on fossil fuels are also important price determinants. Retail prices are also influenced by factors other than wholesale prices, including supply or hedging. This is the practice of purchasing energy in bulk ahead of time, protecting customers from the day-to-day volatility of the energy markets but also having long run effects on retail prices. This, as well as the current conflict, highlights why Ireland must reduce its reliance on imported fossil fuels, accelerate the deployment of renewables and expand interconnection with trusted European partners. I suggest that is a better route to go than spending time, money and energy in looking back at the Barryroe opportunity, which nobody can quantify as to whether it has the perceived bounty that is being suggested. Considering the regime that existed here before in terms of very much encouraging developers of facilities like that over the past decades, nobody advanced in any real way there. I doubt that it is the bounty some would seek to suggest.

I agree with many Members this morning who talked about advancing the case for renewables. The Government is very committed to that and has already begun a scheme. We saw the first wave of the south-east coast area that been identified with the Tonn Nua site back in December, auctioning 900 MW with three other auctions to come soon after. We are also developing a national DMAP towards our commitments for 2040, so we identify by the end of 2027 key sites that will be used for the capturing of offshore wind. We have invested very significantly in our grid. Between €3 billion and €4 billion has been set aside to allow our grid infrastructure to spend up to €18 billion by 2030.

We are also working to ensure that households benefit directly from the renewable transition. Since 2019, SEAI schemes have provided almost €1.7 billion in support to homeowners delivering 250,000 home energy improvements, including almost 32,700 fully funded upgrades for households at risk of energy poverty under the warmer homes scheme. In 2025, nearly 5,000 businesses and community groups received grants to retrofit their properties and install solar. In fact, a rooftop revolution is under way across Ireland. A total of 155,000 homes have received grants to install rooftop solar and free solar panels have been provided to 2,000 schools across the country. This reduces energy bills. Where excess energy is produced, it can be sold into the grid under microgeneration. The national energy affordability task force will play a key role in how we address energy affordability in the period to come. The task force was established by the Government to identify access and implement measures that will enhance energy affordability for households and businesses while delivering key renewable commitments and protecting security of supply and economic stability. This will be a crucial element of the Government's work to improve competitiveness, complementing the action plan on competitiveness and productivity.

The first report of the task force published last November set out measures for consideration in budget 2026. A key output of the task force will be an energy affordability action plan, which will identify a comprehensive range of solutions, including measures targeting households and, indeed, energy poverty as so many Deputies identified today. The plan is currently being developed and is due for publication in Q3 of this year.

I reiterate that this Government is aware that people are concerned about energy security and energy costs at this unprecedented time. As the geopolitical situation continues to evolve, we will remain focused on ensuring that Ireland's energy security remains robust while endeavouring to assist those experiencing real and immediate financial pressure.

I wish to address another issue raised by a Labour Party colleague, Deputy Ahern, in relation to the LNG facility that the Government is moving ahead with. That is a critical piece of infrastructure that is necessary to give us energy security. It is not about another source of fossil fuels into our grid. It is about providing resilience to ensure that in the event of a significant rupture to our current gas supply, we are able to provide gas to our key infrastructure, such as hospitals, and that we have the capacity to do that. I hope that all would see that. The whole programme behind it is about the State controlling it and with it being a floating facility, we are not building key infrastructure that we would beholden to in the decades ahead. It is aimed at providing that energy security.

I thank the Deputies from across the House for their contributions. However, we cannot accept the motion and I support the Government's countermotion.

Deputy Cian O'Callaghan

I thank my colleague, Deputy Gary Gannon, for bringing forward this motion and, indeed, everyone who has contributed to the debate. The price increase for every day basics are relentless. Rents, food, heating, electricity, petrol and diesel are all through the roof. People's wallets do not stretch indefinitely when their wages stay the same. We are reaching a breaking point. People contact me every day who are unable to cope. Could the Government not see that the country was already in crisis before the tractors had arrived in Dublin? Home heating oil jumped nearly 70% in a single month - the biggest increase ever recorded. Irish households are paying some of the highest electricity and gas prices in Europe. People are stretching every euro just to heat their homes, drive to work, keep the lights on and put food on the table.

There are home care workers protesting outside the Dáil right now who are at the coalface of this cost-of-living crisis. Workers from Northside Home Care Service do long and hard hours taking care of our sick and elderly. They provide professional and compassionate care but are not paid properly for their Trojan work. Most are paid just above the minimum wage. This is simply not enough to survive on. They deserve a fair wage for the essential role they play in our community. I urge the Minister of State to speak to his Government colleagues and ensure this pay dispute is resolved. There must be a sectoral wage for care workers and there must be full pay restoration.

The Northside Home Care Service workers are just one example of hard-pressed workers struggling to keep their heads above water. People are crying out for help from the Government but are being ignored. There is a real prospect of continued energy price shocks over the coming months and years. This means that to make the best use of possible resources, the response from the Government must be to target resources to help those who need them most and, crucially, to build resilience and reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

Our proposals get to the root of the cost-of-living crisis. A €400 targeted energy credit would provide much-needed relief for those who need help most. A supplementary mileage scheme for essential workers is also needed as well as a roll-out of solar panels across the country. Every home, every business and every farm building in Ireland should have solar panels. The Social Democrats' solar for all plan put forward by my colleague, Deputy Jennifer Whitmore, would bring down people's bills while also helping us to reach our climate targets. Our proposals are targeted, fully costed and would make an immediate impact while protecting us from future shocks. If the Government is serious about this crisis, it would adopt our proposals.

Deputy Pádraig Rice

I wish to make three points on this. I hope the events of the past week have been a wake-up call for the Government because people across the country are under huge pressure with the rising costs of living. The Social Democrats have put forward real solutions to that, including a targeted €400 energy credit. I urge the Government to implement that as soon as possible. I hope the Government understands that we have to have better energy security, energy independence and move away from imported fossil fuels.

The Minister of State talked about people being able to access help from the Department of Social Protection but there are huge barriers to people accessing help. There is so much bureaucracy there and people struggle to access some of the supports he mentioned. The Government needs to look at that and make the supports the Minister of State says are there more accessible and more available for people.

The key point is we need a green energy revolution. We need to stop burning imported oil, gas and fracked gas and to move to domestic solar and wind energy. We need to make this as accessible for people as possible, which is why we have put forward solar for all proposals. We have to do this to avoid a climate catastrophe but I do not get a sense of urgency from Government on this. The Minister of State talks about identifying sites by 2027. We are not seeing the urgency that is needed to have the huge transition to a green system of energy produced domestically.

While we have these failures we have to support people in the here and now. It is not just farmers and agri contractors as there are people right across society who need support. As health spokesperson for the Social Democrats, I support the call from the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation for supports for nurses and midwives working in the community who are using their own cars to travel across communities to support people. These nurses and midwives support people from cradle to grave. I am thinking of public health nurses, community midwives and palliative care nurses who are driving around in their own cars. Some are covering up to 400 km a week to support people and we need to support them with an increased mileage allowance. We call for that in our motion and I call on the Government and the Minister for Health especially to support the nurses who are under particular pressure, as well as other essential workers, with the increased cost.

The overall message is I want to see a change of direction here. We have to move to a green economy. We need green energy production here at home and we need to support people in the here and now who are massively struggling with the huge cost of living.

Deputy Gary Gannon

It is a shame the Government will not be supporting this Social Democrats' motion that provides solutions both immediately and for the future. I assure the Minister of State we will not be supporting the Government amendment. In three pages of testimony, basically, it is just telling us we will just continue as we are. Continuing on as we are is not acceptable any more. People are hurting too much. It is palpable. Government needs to listen, intervene and act.

As part of our motion we talked about an enhanced supplementary mileage scheme for healthcare and essential workers. The Government amendment does not even reference that fact. I sat in this Chamber yesterday while a continuum of Ministers talked about how people were not able to make their appointments during the protests last week. I also listened to the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation three weeks ago when it told us there were healthcare practitioners - nurses and midwives - who simply could not get to their patients when using their own cars because of the cost of fuel. That is why we made that proposal and it is lamentable in the extreme that the Government has simply averted its gaze from it. It is an insult to the healthcare workers we rely on.

We proposed a €400 energy credit for households earning under €70,000. We did that because people are struggling. The Minister of State told us this Government has given the largest package in Europe but he stopped there. He did not say that Ireland has the highest energy prices in Europe or that we have 315,000 households in energy arrears as we speak. Most frighteningly of all, that figure has increased by 20% in the last 12 months. Can the Minister of State tell me that in six months’ time that number will not have increased again? There are families who are genuinely terrified about another bill coming through their letterbox, so we are asking for that €400 credit. Also, in Ireland we pay on average €360 more than the EU average for electricity so the €400 we propose just brings us to parity, yet the Government has averted its gaze from it. We understand we need solutions both immediately and in the long term so we also proposed a solar power for all initiative. We need leadership, vision and a commitment that never again will we be in the situation we are in now. It is because of global factors and we appreciate that but at this moment we need vision, leadership and intervention. Ministers disgraced themselves last week with their reactionary tone. They inflamed tensions.

What we need here is people who provide solutions. The solar power for all initiative that is being developed by my colleague, Deputy Whitmore, is one that is cost-effective, evidence-based and enables the Irish State to say “Never again” by investing in our communities. It is a capital investment. It could be paid for through the excesses of the carbon tax and it will also mean that when these shocks come again, which they will, Irish households will be inoculated against the worst extent of the crisis. We are asking for bold intervention, an acknowledgement - by listening to the people we meet on the doors - that they are hurting and intervening with a €400 energy credit accompanied by a belief that never again should we be in this position by removing ourselves from fossil fuel dependency. That starts by recognising we can intervene here and we have a role to play. During the oil shock of the 1970s Denmark invested in renewables and it has inoculated its citizens from the worst effects of this particular crisis. I am sick and tired of hearing about how we are a wealthy country and that we have surpluses. Every single day I knock on doors of citizens who are operating on a deficit. That is a crying shame. There is capacity here and the Government will have support across the Chamber if we invest in people’s immediate needs and also in the solutions of tomorrow. That should be a solar power for all initiative and that is achievable. It could make a huge difference. We will be opposing the Government’s amendment and it is a damn shame it is not bringing forward the necessary solutions.

Amendment put.

An Ceann Comhairle

In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is deferred until the weekly division time this evening.

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht - Wednesday, 15 Apr 2026

Tackling Soaring Energy Costs: Motion [Private Members]

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 15 Apr 2026