Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 25 Oct 2023

Vol. 1044 No. 5

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2023: Second Stage

Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (Deputy Eamon Ryan)

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

As we know, the high cost of energy brought on by the volatility in the wholesale gas market has had a significant impact on the cost of living for many people. While the price reductions announced by the main energy suppliers in recent weeks are welcome, the average price of electricity and gas is still significantly higher for households compared to pre-energy crisis levels and support is still needed for households. In this context, I am introducing this Bill, which will establish the electricity costs emergency benefit scheme III, under which a total of €412.83, excluding VAT, will be paid to domestic electricity accounts in three payments between this December and April 2024. This follows the success of the first two electricity costs emergency benefit schemes, which saw a total of €800, including VAT, applied to more than 2.2 million domestic electricity accounts between January 2022 and April 2023.

We have had the opportunity to learn from the previous schemes in 2022 and 2023. While the use of meter point registration numbers, MPRNs, allowed for a broad reach without application or means testing, it also meant some cohorts were not able to access the payment. For this reason, this Bill will also introduce a submeter support scheme to ensure payments reach people whose electricity is supplied via a submeter, who could not receive payments under the previous schemes.

Under the previous two schemes, the use of the single eligibility criterion of an MPRN also meant that credits may have been applied to domestic electricity accounts in vacant houses. Scheme III will see that payments are not applied to accounts which have extremely low usage levels indicative of vacancy. It is critical that the schemes this Bill will establish are put in place so that payments can begin from 1 December. I seek the support of the House in achieving this.

First, I will outline the main factors which affect electricity prices in Ireland. Second, I will provide an overview of the domestic response to the high energy prices. As Deputies will be aware, supporting people with cost-of-living pressures was a key focus of the budget this year. Finally, I will outline the Bill.

I will now turn to the first point, namely factors affecting Irish electricity prices. The war in Ukraine had a severe and immediate impact on energy prices due to sudden volatility in the wholesale gas market. However, prices had been rising steadily since the beginning of 2021, in the aftermath of Covid-19. In recent weeks, price reductions of between 9% and 30% were announced by a number of energy suppliers and this will be reflected in retail bills in the coming months. I acknowledge that electricity prices in Ireland are higher than in many other European countries at present. Retail prices are influenced by a number of factors, including wholesale energy prices and supplier hedging. In June, I wrote to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, to request that a review of the pricing and hedging strategies be carried out to ascertain if there have been any market failures, particularly in the case of vulnerable customers. The CRU reported in September 2023 that it found no evidence of market failure in the retail markets and that it will continue to monitor this.

As Deputies will be aware, work is ongoing in my Department to implement the Council regulation to address windfall gains in the energy sector. The proceeds raised by the cap on market revenues will be used to support final electricity consumers, in line with Article 10 of the Council regulation. The estimated proceeds for the market cap are between €80 million and €150 million. It is a key priority of the Government that households are supported during this time of high prices, especially those who are more vulnerable or most at risk of energy poverty.

Turning to the actions the Government has taken to support people, particularly with the cost of energy, budget 2024 introduced a €2.2 billion suite of once-off cost-of-living supports to assist families, pensioners, carers and people with disabilities. This includes three electricity cost emergency benefit payments, paid to 2.237 million domestic electricity accounts; a lump sum of €300 to all fuel allowance recipients in November of this year; lump-sum payments to recipients of the fuel allowance and other social protection payments in November of this year; a double payment of the child benefit in December of this year; and a 100% Christmas bonus in December of this year. This follows the €1.3 billion package of temporary supports announced in the spring.

I want also to draw attention to the additional needs payment operated by the Department of Social Protection. Any person in need of additional support, including support with energy bills, may apply for an additional needs payment. Every effort will be made to ensure qualifying applicants receive an additional needs payment on the same day or as soon as possible where it relates to electricity and heating expenses. The record allocation for my Department in this budget demonstrates the Government's commitment to achieving a climate-neutral, sustainable and digitally connected Ireland.

The energy poverty action plan, introduced in December 2022, set out a range of measures to ensure those least able to afford increased energy costs would be supported and protected to heat and power their homes adequately. The implementation of this is being monitored by a cross-departmental steering group, chaired by my Department. Following the inaugural energy poverty stakeholder engagement forum, a revised energy poverty action plan that will be brought to the Government in quarter 1 of 2024 will set out further measures to support households in and at risk of energy poverty. Our key concern is to protect the most vulnerable. The range of measures introduced in budget 2024 will ensure this support and protection continues in the winter of 2023 and 2024.

The regulator has an important role in consumer protection. In September, the CRU announced that the winter moratorium for all bill-pay customers would be extended to run from 1 December 2023 to 31 January 2024. This follows its announcement of specific customer protection measures for winter 2023 to strengthen the existing protections. The promotion of the vulnerable customer register by the CRU, my Department and electricity suppliers last year led to a 33.3% increase in the number of those registered in January 2023. These immediate actions are vital, but we must also look to the long-term approach for Ireland in the context of energy efficiency, renewable energy and consumer empowerment.

We are committed to leaving no one behind in the move to a low-carbon future. Our budget for next year includes record funding of €380 million for Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, residential and community energy upgrades, including the solar PV scheme. This €24 million increase on last year means more funding than ever before will be available to make homes warmer, healthier, more comfortable and less expensive to heat. This will be supplemented by additional funding from the European Regional Development Fund to support next year’s programme of energy upgrades for households at risk of energy poverty. The Government's decision in May of this year to apply a 0% VAT rate boosted the installation of domestic solar panels throughout the country, with more than 21,000 households expected to receive support this year.

Turning to the subject matter of the Bill, it will provide for the establishment of a scheme for the purpose of making electricity cost emergency benefit payments of €137.61, excluding VAT, to domestic electricity accounts, to be paid in December of this year and in the January-February and March-April 2024 billing cycles. This scheme is broadly similar to those that operated in 2022 and 2023, with one significant change. As part of the scheme, domestic electricity accounts with very low usage, namely, 150 kW per quarter for four consecutive quarters, will not receive the payment unless the account is held by a customer who is a registered vulnerable customer, who has a financial hardship meter, which is a meter installed for customers who are in financial difficulty, or who is engaging in microgeneration.

I am aware Deputy O’Rourke sought to introduce a similar provision to the second scheme last year but, given the time constraints involved and the emergency nature of the legislation, this was not possible. Following the introduction of the vacant homes tax and engagement with ESB Networks on typical household usage levels, this measure has been developed. The consumption threshold set here closely aligns with the criteria used by Revenue to determine property vacancy. By reducing the limit to 150 kW per quarter, however, we will ensure eligible houses are not inadvertently excluded. I reiterate that where an account holder is a registered vulnerable customer, has a hardship meter or is engaging in microgeneration, payments will not be withheld. We will not prevent the payment from reaching people who need it.

The Bill will provide a review function for suppliers. If contacted by a customer who has not received the payment, the supplier will be able to review this and apply the payment if the customer is a registered vulnerable customer, is eligible to be on the vulnerable customer register or has a financial hardship meter. The moneys for the scheme will be allocated by me as Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, out of moneys provided by the Oireachtas. The sum will not exceed €1.007 billion. The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities will provide oversight of the scheme and it will be operated by the distribution system operator, DSO, ESB Networks and electricity suppliers.

The mechanism by which the scheme will operate is as follows. I will, under regulations, provide for a date, to be known as the relevant date, on which the distribution system operator will calculate the total number of domestic electricity accounts in the State, on the basis of meter point registration numbers, MPRNs. The DSO will also calculate the total number of low-usage electricity accounts, including the number held by registered vulnerable customers, people with hardship meters or people who are engaged in microgeneration. ESB Networks will notify me of these numbers and this will allow the estimation and necessary allocation of moneys for the scheme. On the effective dates for each payment period, which will be set out in regulations, ESB Networks will notify each electricity supplier of the assigned MPRN for each domestic electricity account it supplies. They will also alert suppliers of the assigned MPRN for each domestic electricity account with low usage that is not held by a registered vulnerable customer, a customer with a hardship meter or a customer engaging in microgeneration.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

We are out of time.

Deputy Eamon Ryan

I will finish on this. ESB Networks will also, on the effective dates, notify suppliers of the sums they will transfer to them for the purposes of the scheme.

Deputy Darren O'Rourke

There is a palpable sense of déjà vu in the Chamber. Here we are, debating for the third time an almost identical Bill to the ones we debated in both February and October of last year. In fact, the only difference between this year’s Bill and those that have passed through the Houses is that the Government has incorporated several proposals Sinn Féin tabled last year, which is to be welcomed. Ironically, however, they are proposals the Government had stubbornly rejected as inappropriate, unnecessary or made too soon.

There is no legitimate reason ordinary workers and families should have had to wait a whole year for these improvements to the design of the scheme. While late is certainly better than never, it is extremely disappointing a combination of arrogance, incompetence and negligence prevented the Government from doing the right thing a little over 12 months ago. Moreover, the Government has yet again cited this as a once-off measure, but three schemes in 20 months is hardly a once-off.

Last year, Sinn Féin sought to give the Minister power to make further payments to households should they be deemed necessary. This would remove the need for more primary legislation and, ultimately, speed up the process. The Government ignored these constructive calls. As a result, yet another item of primary legislation has been drafted and rammed through the parliamentary process in an uncomfortably short timeframe. The tendency to rush through or completely bypass important legislative processes has become an undeniable habit of the Government. I remind the Minister we were asked to skip pre-legislative scrutiny yet again on this Bill and were given less than 24 hours to submit amendments. This has, again, placed all members of the Opposition in a difficult position.

We recognise that ordinary workers and families need swift and urgent relief from high energy bills this coming winter and, therefore, while Sinn Féin would prefer a price cap, we will seek to amend rather than reject this important Bill. We hope the Government has learned from its mistake last year and will accept our amendments today, rather than waiting a year just to avoid acknowledging that Sinn Féin's proposals were reasonable, sound and important. Sinn Féin has tabled several other amendments that would have vastly improved the scheme.

Because Committee Stage will follow immediately, we already know that a number of those have been ruled out of order. Curiously, the same amendments were not ruled out of order when submitted in respect of previous versions of this legislation.

The Government accepts that Ireland should adopt a more targeted scheme, and that is welcome. The Government accepts that it is neither fair nor prudent to credit extremely low energy users - such as those associated with vacant properties or hardly used holiday homes – while others can barely afford to turn on a single light or heater. Had the Government listened to us last year, it could have saved tens of millions of euro by incorporating our amendments. The Government has also embraced Sinn Féin’s recommendation that there was a need to address sub-meters specifically, particularly as the scheme’s design last year meant that many missed out. Sinn Féin predicted that this would happen. However, we were ignored and the Government chose to go in a different direction. Nonetheless, we recognise that Bill before us is an important step in the right direction. However, what comfort is that in light of the unnecessary hardship many endured due to bad scheme design last year and earlier this year? This hardship was amplified by the fact that there was no dispute resolution process included in last year’s legislation, which was yet another problem Sinn Féin pointed out with the legislation last October. While the 2023 iteration of the electricity credit scheme corrects that, what consolation is this to the many who had valid concerns over the past 12 months, but no recourse to rectify them?

The Government has also finally affirmed that those on hardship meters – often extremely vulnerable customers living in energy poverty – should be included in the ban on winter disconnections. This initially was not the case last year. However, due to the diligent work of Sinn Féin and others via amendments and engagement, the Government could no longer ignore the issue. While the Taoiseach originally claimed it would be too difficult, he eventually acquiesced under sustained pressure. It is interesting that talk of this being too difficult has disappeared. It was always possible, if the will were there. This reinforces the proposition that while Government often can do more to protect ordinary workers and families, it does not, and often. I am calling on it to break with this futile trend. I would prefer not to have this discussion again six, eight or 12 months down the line. The Government can do better, by accepting our amendments.

On the proposal to exclude low energy users, Sinn Féin’s amendments would make this provision more robust. The Government’s proposal defines a low energy user as a customer who uses less than 150 kW of electricity for four consecutive periods of three months between July 2022 and 30 June 2023. This means that if more than 150 kW are consumed in even one of those four periods, the electricity credit is awarded, even if overall usage remains extremely low. By contrast, and in our amendment, Sinn Féin would define a low energy user as anyone who consumes less than 600 kW of electricity over a cumulative a period of 12 months. The word "cumulative" is important. This would ensure we are not placing scarce resources where they are simply not needed, such as the example of a rarely used holiday home.

We also want to strengthen the disputes procedure by providing additional protection to consumers and removing uncertainty. We would mandate energy suppliers to respond to a request for a review within a specified timeframe of 28 days rather than the lofty ambition of as soon as is practicable, which in reality could mean anything. Our amendments also seek to provide more definitive timelines for raising complaints to the CRU enhancing predictability for consumers. We also continue our efforts to ensure that those on hardship meters are afforded the same rights as all other customers by removing the limit on the amount of arrears they are allowed to accrue.

Beyond this, we also propose that any revenue not distributed or returned should be used to provide ordinary workers and families with relief from high energy costs. The Government has significantly reduced the credit from €200 to €150. This arbitrary reduction of 25% fails to reflect the fact that prices have just not fallen that significantly. Between the first and second quarter of this year, the number of customers in arrears increased by approximately 55,000 electricity customers and 7,000 domestic gas customers. Some 12% of all electricity customers and 24% of all domestic gas customers were in arrears at the end of June. This matches the ending of the last energy credit scheme in the spring. Considering the high levels of arrears and the lower energy credit, this is a huge cause for concern as we head into the winter. Sinn Féin has put forward an amendment to the effect that any reduction in the credit would be commensurate with the reduction in energy prices. The reality is that an energy price cap would have provided much more certainty to ordinary workers and families over the winter. This is why they have been applied across the EU. However, the Government once again decided to go in a different direction. That is why we believe it should justify the continued use of electricity credits over measures such as price caps. We have submitted an amendment calling for a report on this specific issue.

I take this opportunity to remind the Minister that there are a multitude of other policy proposals from Sinn Féin, across the Opposition and the energy sectors, that would alleviate the energy burden on ordinary workers, families and hard-pressed businesses. These are ambitious plans that aim to comprehensively address to address the consistent chaos in Ireland’s energy markets, rather than relying on repeated and rushed short-term measures. A key part of this of course is tackling the high cost of energy and, in the first instance, delivering renewables but tackling the high cost of renewables too. We had a presentation in the audiovisual room from Wind Energy Ireland earlier today. As they have done time and again, the company's representatives pointed to the grid and the planning system. They outlined in clear and stark terms that we are not on course to meet our offshore targets by 2030. In fact, we are further away this year than we were this time last year. That is something that absolutely has to be addressed. This energy credit will be welcomed by people who are in desperate need of it. It must be among a suite of measures to tackle the high cost of energy in this country.

Deputy Sean Sherlock

On behalf of the Labour Party, I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill, which, if passed, will provide for making three payments of €150 to ease the energy bills burden on hard-pressed households. While we will support this legislation on the basis of the adage that something is better than nothing, it bears repeating that this Government's approach to the cost of living is not effective. Rather than target inequality or the root cause of energy market insecurity and inflation, the Government has once again opted for a disappointing and untargeted payment instead. That is simply not sufficient to deal with the scale of the society-wide crisis we face.

Inflation is at a 20-year high. The CSO makes clear that energy prices are driving that increase. Eurostat reports that Ireland now has the single highest consumer prices in the European Union, in no small part owing to the cost of energy. Households and businesses across the country can expect to pay the third highest electricity prices in the European Union. The household energy price index report for 2023 indicates that Irish households paid more per capita for their electricity than those in 33 other EU countries. That is notwithstanding the energy credits provided in the past year. Put another way, bills here are a colossal 80% higher than the EU average. In fairness, nobody in this House should require those statistics to tell them that working people across the country are finding it more difficult to keep the lights on. Our own experiences of paying the bills, and those of the people we are lucky to represent, show unequivocally that heating, electricity and transport costs are causing sleepless nights for many. Older people, those on lower incomes and people relying on social welfare payments stare in horror at the heating bills coming through the letter box.

They have no idea how to pay them. Temperatures should be dropping but one thing is staying the same: the industry is incapable or regulating itself and acting fairly towards its customers and the best the Government can do is to spend public money in an untargeted way to meet these extortionate bills. Any calls from these benches for intervention to cut bills have been met with derision or bemusement.

The regulator, the CRU, acts like a nodding dog. The experience of recent times has laid bare that the CRU is incapable of taking the side of consumers, whether those on pay-as-you-go meters who felt the crunch first, those in district heating schemes paying for energy at the commercial rate or those slapped with increase after increase over the past two years.

The word "crisis" is invoked regularly in these Houses but it is the only word to describe the cost-of-living situation in which we find ourselves. That said, we in the Labour Party are of the view that Government Members do not understand the scale and extent of this problem for working families. If they did, they might not be quite so timid in their response to the fall in living standards felt by hundreds of thousands of people whose life outcomes are determined by Government policies.

Wholesale prices have dropped and price cuts have been announced which we hope will ease the burden on households in the coming weeks. However, it exposes how anaemic Government solutions for households are that the best bill payers can expect is for some for-profit private corporations to see the morality in reducing prices after they have reaped record profits and are paying record dividends to their shareholders. Energy companies can blame the mechanics of the market all they want but it is clear they are much slower to pass on cuts in their costs to Irish householders than they were to hike up prices and rake in the record profits that resulted. Indeed, they deemed it inappropriate to give households a break when they passed the benefit of reduced wholesale prices on to businesses. The reductions we now see for households are paltry when we consider electricity costs have more than doubled in the past two years.

On budget day, it was confirmed the Government would take the same old approach again when we saw the return of our old friend the energy credit. It is the definition of an untargeted payment. For coalition parties who purportedly pride themselves on looking after the public purse, they have selected an exceptionally populist way of whittling it away. It is a questionable use of public money, not prudent or even generous. The cost of the measure is about €100 million less than the Government will spend on increases to all welfare schemes this year. It is multiples of what it will spend on combating child poverty. In essence, it amounts to bribing voters with their own money in a cost-of-living crisis when drastic measures are needed.

The Labour Party’s €2 billion cost-of-living package would have targeted money where it is needed most. It would have provided for a bonus in October and at Christmas for those who need it most this year, and not in January. It would have increased pensions, carer's allowance and other payments by €15 per month. It would have provided €9 monthly public transport across all modes and would have given renters a €1,000 tax credit. It would have drastically increased the supply of housing to slash rents, reduce reliance on HAP and cut house prices. With respect, I tell the Minister that is how to direct public funds to where they are needed, not by buying votes using public money or belatedly introducing half measures, but by investing in measures which can end poverty and insulate the entire country from the folly of market forces.

Our corporation tax receipts speak for themselves. Even when we strip away any so-called windfall corporation tax surpluses next year, we will still report a surplus. Before we start congratulating ourselves on the impressive performance of our domestic economy, we must ask what the value of that growth is when the fruits or our labour are not deployed to people when they need it most. That means stopping people from falling into fuel poverty, helping to ensure they make their rent or mortgage repayments at the end of the month and taking meaningful action to allow those on the breadline put food on the table for their families.

Ministers have often repeated the mantra that the current period of inflation is transitory, but the structural issues which condemn our population to a lifetime of poverty or scrimping and saving are not transitory. They are baked into the dominant market ideology, which is ultimately content to allow a situation where energy companies pull in mammoth profits while consumers pay through the nose. We have a real crisis on our hands and cannot afford to stand by and let the market sort it out, as is our tendency in this country.

When energy companies hiked up prices, the Government insisted the best it could do was ask politely that they not do so. When they used standing charges to further penalise customers, it did the same. Cabinet Ministers are not mere commentators. We have consistently raised the issue of price gouging by big companies recording supernormal profits, and the same goes for electricity companies.

While we will not oppose the Bill because it is a small relief for squeezed households, we are clear it does not go far enough. Energy companies have had it their way for too long. There needs to be structural change in terms of how the market operates so that it works for the benefit of consumers. That is where Government needs to act at an EU level. It should not be up to customers to bear almost exclusively the cost of this crisis. It must change but, unfortunately, the Government has passed up the opportunity to change it again this year.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

The next list of speakers are missing so I am moving down the list to an Teachta Bríd Smith.

Deputy Bríd Smith

Go raibh maith agat.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

Are you sharing?

Deputy Bríd Smith

Is there somebody else here to share with me? I do not think so.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

You are down for six and four. It is a ten-minute slot.

Deputy Bríd Smith

I do not think I will use ten minutes. It feels like déjà vu. I have said it all before but we will say it again. Like the previous Deputy said, we will not oppose the Bill because it gives much-needed support to people who are in serious arrears. I do not think it is proper to call it a once-off payment. We had a once-off payment at the end of December 2022, so this is a second-, third- or fourth-off payment that is supposed to help people as a temporary measure.

I want to go to the heart and nub of the problem. These once-off payments, much as they are welcome, will not address the systemic problems that have led to extensive profiteering by the energy companies. Like all Deputies, we have been inundated with people who are terrified of the high costs of their gas and electricity bills and often make choices, as we know, between heating and eating.

The higher and higher levels of arrears reported to us are, we are told, because of the high cost of energy brought about by the brutal invasion of Ukraine. This is repeated to us all the time. That illegal war sparked a crisis but those flames caught on because of the way the European Union has built and developed a liberalised market in energy. In Ireland, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael changed the remit of the ESB and facilitated competition in energy provision. This neoliberal revolution was meant to herald an era of dynamic competition which would lead to reduced prices and less State investment. Prices were to come down because of competition but, as with all these neoliberal promises, what we got was very different. We got a plethora of competing firms, rising prices and profits, and sometimes an attack on the traditional workforce and their unions in companies.

Eurostat figures show us that last year we paid 48% above the EU average for electricity in this country. It was reported in August that people are now paying €1,000 more a year for electricity in this country than the European average. We have the highest electricity prices in the whole of Europe. Bills here are 80% higher than the European average. There is only one way of explaining that, namely profiteering, profit gouging and unnecessary so-called competition that is supposed to bring down prices but actually forces them up.

I want to again make the case for renationalising the energy system. Instead of having an ESB which has a profit remit and makes vast profits from energy bills, we should return the not-for-profit remit to the ESB. That would allow the company to flourish and become a nationalised energy company, not just in the sector we have now but in what we hope will be a growing renewables sector. Ultimately, when we are faced with a crisis all private companies will do the same thing. They do what comes naturally. They will never waste a good crisis and we see widespread profiteering as a result. It is it is an opportunity for profits to be gouged and, therefore, costs for ordinary people go up.

On top of all of the Byzantine structure of the market, the cost of renewable energy, which should have gone right down, was built into that Byzantine market structure so that, regardless of where energy comes from, prices remained the same. According to the CRU, more than 400,000 households and half a million people are in energy arrears in the State. That has ratcheted up the level of energy poverty. Once-off help with electricity bills, while welcome because people are hard-pressed, do not deal with the source of the problem and heart of the crisis. If we continue with this market-based approach to energy provision, it will mean that crisis after crisis - there are many of them across the planet - the cost for ordinary people will continue to go up. Effectively, we are giving a subsidy to energy companies instead of tackling the failure of the ideology in the first place.

On top of that, there is the increased use of our energy market by data centres. There is no control over them. A number of planning applications for them have been granted and it is predicted that data centre usage will take 30% of the national grid by 2030, which is, after all, only a short six years away. We are failing to tackle the heart of the problem. We will give out this money. We will not oppose the Bill, but we have not seen the last of price gouging or profiteering. We will put a plaster on a gaping wound by passing the Bill, but we have no choice because we have to help people. We are not dealing with the core part of the crisis. That is where the Government is utterly failing. There is no sign of the Government attempting to deal with this issue through any legislation or provisions that might change the way we are being robbed in this country through the energy market.

Deputy Cormac Devlin

I welcome the opportunity to examine the Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2023. I am sure nearly all of us welcome this Bill. At the outset, I would like to note that it is disappointing that more proactive efforts have not been made to pressure utilities into passing on savings to consumers. Unfortunately, the Exchequer will now have to step in to support households at a cost of €1 billion. Notwithstanding that, the terms of this measure and the associated supports introduced by the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform are welcome and necessary.

Three €150 energy credits will be made to an estimated 2.237 million household electricity accounts from 1 December, 1 January and 1 March. I heard colleagues across the floor speak about their previous proposals, in particular Sinn Féin's proposal on energy credits. If we had followed that model, it may have been similar to what we saw happen in the UK. I also have concerns about Sinn Féin’s proposal to remove households using less than 600 KW hours per year from the scheme. This could penalise people using very little electricity. Equally, the Labour Party suggestion that many more households should be excluded from the scheme fails to recognise the impact of the cost-of-living crisis on all households across the country.

I welcome clarification around the minimum usage of 150 KW hours per quarter for homes. However, there should be an easy to access appeals mechanism to ensure issues arising from estimated meter readings can be dealt with efficiently. It is also important for the Minister to ask the CRU and suppliers to make additional efforts to ensure vulnerable users are registered. Changes to the previous scheme to assist people using sub-meters are extremely welcome. It is to be hoped this will be last time we need an energy credit. I again appeal to the Minister to have the CRU take a more proactive approach with utilities to ensure savings from wholesale price decreases are passed on to consumers.

Over the past number of years, many households have experienced hardship because of the cost of living, inflation or a mix of both. These energy credits were extremely welcome for those individuals, young, old, families and all sorts of other households. It is welcome to have this measure and it cannot be taken for granted. If we look across Europe, we see that the same system has not been rolled out for householders. We in Ireland are in a very fortunate position and the Government is extremely conscious of the cost of living for householders. Therefore, this measure is extremely welcome.

Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire

We support the Bill but would prefer to see a price cap. That is an argument we have consistently made and will continue to make in order to provide the certainty that families and businesses require. Having said that, we welcome the Bill.

We also welcome the fact that some of the things Sinn Féin outlined last year which were ruled out have now, one year on, been incorporated, including measures to ensure that those on sub-meters get the electricity credit, measures to ensure that low energy users who do not require it do not benefit and dispute mechanism procedures. Outside of the Bill, I note that those on hardship meters are not being excluded from the moratorium on disconnections this winter. While all of the changes from the Government are welcome, it is a pity that it took a year to listen to what Sinn Féin said.

It remains the case that energy bills are very high. They are one of the areas where people potentially face the greatest hardship, in particular because the decisions people make regarding energy can affect their lives enormously. We think of those families on low incomes or elderly people who make a decision not to pay an energy bill or reduce their spend on food in order to pay it. These are the difficult decisions people still have to make. More is needed. We welcome what is in the Bill, but ultimately what is needed is a price cap to deliver the certainty that people need and to reduce the hardship faced by families.

Deputy Peadar Tóibín

Ireland has the highest electricity costs in the whole of Europe, and that is not by accident. It is a strategic objective of this Government to increase the price of electricity and reduce the level of consumption in order to fulfil its climate change objectives. That is the whole truth of the matter. We have seen this debate rumble on for about two years, while the Government pretends to focus on reducing the price of electricity but does nothing whatsoever about it.

The idea that we are an outlier in terms of electricity costs is incredible. We are pushing people into poverty. Families are awake overnight wondering which bills they can pay. They are either going from overdraft to overdraft or are in the hands of moneylenders. The Government has allowed Electric Ireland to make massive profits without making any changes and has driven up taxes, in real terms, in respect of fuel. This is not just putting people into poverty; it is actually pushing people out of their jobs.

Along with other Deputies from Meath, I attended at a meeting last night with Tara Mines workers.

One of the reasons 650 people in Tara Mines are out of work at the moment and some 1,000 related jobs are in danger is because of the extraordinarily high price of electricity here. Similar mines at the same zinc price in Sweden are operational because they have a government that actually means business when it comes to reasonable electricity prices.

In the middle of the cost-of-living crisis, the Government has put up taxes on fuel in June. Tolls were increased in July. The Government put up taxes on fuel in September and again in October. How does that marry with the idea that the Government is concerned about people who are struggling in the cost-of-living crisis? Rather than giving help to people struggling in the cost-of-living crisis, the Government is going in the opposite direction.

The response to a parliamentary question that I tabled has shown that the Government is making more in tax receipts, in the jaws of the cost-of-living crisis, than it ever did before. This is an incredible situation. Interestingly, the Government is making more from extra taxes on fuel, plus the extra profits in Electric Ireland, than it is giving back to people in the electricity credits. It is taking from the taxpayer on one hand and giving it back on the other hand, and expecting a clap on the back for it. These one-off payments are very political. They are intended to give a feel-good feeling to citizens in the run-up to an election next year. The Government's approach is very cynical.

One of the reasons we have such high electricity costs is because the Government is failing in the delivery of capital projects. There is a real administration problem happening. Progress on projects is glacial and they are massively over cost. That is happening throughout society. In Midleton, for example, people suffered from floods back in 2015. In 2016, the Government said it would help but the planning application for the project has not yet gone into the county council. The Government is failing. It is being tied up in bureaucracy and red tape. There is also a massive amount of waste. Over the weekend, I listened to a Government spokesperson saying that one of the reasons capital projects are being slowed down is that people are taking court cases against planning applications. People are taking court cases, but those planning applications in their own right are glacially slow in their delivery. If court cases are taking a really long time, it is because the court system is horrendously inefficient. We do not have court cases going through the system in a speedy fashion. Ireland is creating major problems for itself regarding infrastructure and capital investment and it is going to get worse. We can see examples of this in the national children's hospital, the metro system and the situation in Midleton. Even the Navan to Dublin railway line is taking years to be built. The original line was built in three years in the 1850s by men using picks and shovels, but now the upgrade is taking 25 years to be delivered. If we cannot deliver capital projects, we cannot create energy efficiently to make sure there is competition and prices come down. The Government has a major responsibility in this regard. I urge rich Ministers to stop making decisions that are pushing struggling families into poverty on a weekly basis.

Deputy Peter Fitzpatrick

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this essential Bill, the Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2023. I will support its progress today.

Last year, the war between Ukraine and Russia generated a sharp increase in energy prices for gas and electricity and significant volatility in the energy markets. Latest figures from the Central Statistics Office, CSO, show that wholesale electricity prices increased by 4.8% between August and September of this year, but prices were 60.6% lower in September 2023 than in September 2022. This indicates that energy providers are passing falling prices on to customers, with price reductions of between 9.5% and 30% in recent months. This is a good sign. However, 50 years after the 1973 Arab oil embargo, the current war in the Middle East has the potential to disrupt global oil supplies and push prices higher. According to the International Energy Agency, IEA, oil markets are already stretched by cutbacks in oil production from Saudi Arabia and Russia and expected stronger demand from China. Developing countries that import oil and other fuels will be the most affected.

Last week, the Council of the EU reached agreement on a proposal to amend the EU's electricity market design. This aims to shield consumers across the EU from price spikes, accelerate the deployment of renewable energies and improve consumer protection. While I welcome this progressive step forward, it is a long-term process and negotiations will need to be entered into before legislation is finalised. Therefore, the Government must concentrate on managing supply and demand, and must protect vulnerable users in the coming months via the energy credits scheme.

I acknowledge that the electricity credits announced in the budget will go some way towards helping families that are struggling to keep up with energy bills. The existing infrastructure is a huge help for the implementation of payments to most households, but not all. The requirement of the use of the MPRN as the identifier within both previous electricity credit schemes excluded certain cohorts. Approximately 1,000 Traveller households in certain local authority accommodation, where the MPRN is registered to the local authority and supplies multiple households, could not access the payment. This is also a reality in rural Ireland. For example, because of housing shortages, it is common for adult children and their families to live with their parents - together but separate - with one group living in a granny flat, for example. One electricity meter covering two dwellings previously impacted both households' entitlements to obtain the electricity credit. The announcement in the budget that complementary measures will be established to support Traveller households is welcome as I have already received numerous calls from my constituents in Louth.

The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications intends to establish a sub-meter support scheme to ensure that in cases in which electricity is supplied through sub-meters to forms of accommodation such as independent dwellings or granny flats, residents will receive the same level of support as those who possess an individual MPRN. While these advancements in the scheme are welcome, I would like to question the estimated timeframe of the implementation and delivery of these new measures. Will they be in effect before the first energy credit payment, which is due to be processed on 1 December?

I wish to make clear that whatever needs to be done now to keep the lights on for families this winter must be done as a matter of urgency. It is imperative that we do not compromise on people’s health and safety. Legislation should be updated and these schemes should be ironed out and implemented immediately. Legislation should incorporate a ban on any threat to turn off electricity supply to businesses. Those in the hospitality sector who will incur increased VAT charges and wage increases must be helped. They barely survived through Covid and are now being hit with significant cost increases. Critical social infrastructure such as hospitals, nursing homes and schools should also get a guarantee that electricity supplies will not be turned off.

With regard to vulnerable constituents and energy poverty, my office is acutely aware that last year's exceptionally high wholesale gas prices have led to unprecedented increases in the electricity and retail gas prices faced by consumers. This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of people being forced to make very difficult decisions based on income and on human needs. Quality of life means so much and people are struggling every week.

With that said, I back the progression of this Bill. No additional delays should be imposed. We need to ensure this legislation is fit for purpose, successfully progresses through the next Stages and is enacted as quickly as possible to assist all constituents coming into the winter months.

The biggest problem I see in my constituency is people being fearful. They do not know how much it will cost to boil a kettle, to put on the microwave or to heat their homes until the bills come. The main word I hear is "fear". I welcome the three payments of electricity credits, but there is a fear factor among people and that is the biggest problem.

Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor

One in eight homes is now in arrears on its energy bills. This includes homes in County Carlow. Further electricity cost emergency benefit payments are very welcome. I welcome the three €150 benefit payments to be made in December 2023, January 2024 and March-April 2024. These are very important, but the continued high level of global energy prices is causing massive problems for every household I am disappointed that the delayed Bill on the windfall tax only covers the six months between last December and June of this year. It does not reflect the fact that the energy companies have been hiking up their prices since September 2021, six months before the conflict in Ukraine began. We need full transparency on the profits of energy companies. Customers who have struggled with rising energy costs over the past two years, including those who come to my clinics in Carlow, deserve that information and it should be publicly available.

They also need to see better reductions. I am concerned that there is a mechanism for an electricity supplier to refuse electricity cost emergency benefit payment to a customer. However, I welcome that there is a mechanism for a customer to request a review on or before 30 June 2024, stating the reasons the customer wants the refusal reviewed. It that is really important for me. Several customers have been on to me about that.

Some constituents in Carlow told me they did not get the previous measures because their home was above a commercial property and as such, they were not able to avail of the supports even though they lived over it. I got worn out contacting the company; I got no joy whatsoever. However, now at least we are getting some clarity on that because I have seen cases like that where people were living over a commercial property. It was their home but they were told they did not qualify for it. I welcome that this will be addressed.

While arrears are very difficult especially for families, I am aware that overall, there has not been a significant fluctuation in arrears over the past 12 months. While disconnections have increased slightly since the end of the moratorium, they are still lower than they were in 2021. I welcome that nobody will be disconnected this winter. However, the energy providers need to do much more for those in arrears. It is not simply enough to tell them that there is a hardship fund if they see somebody repeatedly in arrears. They need to look at ways to support, retain and reward those customers for their loyalty and to assist them. The priority must be that the most vulnerable are protected. It is important to stress that nobody should go without electricity or gas. If people are struggling with energy bills, the most important thing is for them to keep in touch with their energy suppliers. That has to be the main issue.

Research by organisations such as the ESRI has recognised that Government supports over the past year have helped people. When anyone who needs additional support for their continued energy supply tries to apply for additional or exceptional needs payments from the Department of Social Protection, they are often refused. It is a nightmare. They need bank statements, information on what they pay out and information on what they have. We need to have a better system. I am in constant contact with the Department of Social Protection and I know the officials are doing their best; I am not giving out about them. However, there must be a better system, especially when we consider that, according to the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, ACER, Ireland had the third highest household electricity prices and the seventh highest household gas prices in 2022. We have to help those who are in need and the most vulnerable. I know the Government is doing its best with all these once-off payments, but the suppliers need to do more.

Deputy Paul Donnelly

Yet again there is no sign of light at the end of the tunnel for those workers and families who continue to struggle with the crippling cost of energy on top of the continuing rise in the cost of living. Many Deputies, possibly including the Minister of State, are getting emails from constituents who are worried about their bills for the upcoming winter. They are worried about turning on the heat and the light. It has not been that cold yet, but it is certainly turning colder and they are fearful of what their bills will be like. They have gone through all their bills before and they are terrified of what those bills will be. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul has reported that the number unable to heat their homes more than doubled in 2022 and has continued to rise in 2023. That is the reality. Here are some astonishing figures. The ESB reported €847 million in profits in 2022, including €676 million in the first six months. Energia had an operating profit of €354 million in the fiscal year ending in March 2023, up from €178 million the year before. SSE Airtricity reported €2.5 billion in profits in March 2023, up by €1.16 billion 2022. All this is happening while families continue to suffer. Unfortunately, the Government has not addressed the issue of the massive profits these companies are making on the backs of ordinary people who pay the bills.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I am glad to get the opportunity to talk again about these unfair energy costs. While I welcome the three €150 credits, this system is ridiculous. In the first place, the energy providers are allowed to overcharge and to charge what they like. This is what is happening and we are then trying to get a windfall tax off them. At present, what is happening with this €150 credit is that the Government is paying this with taxpayers' money and we do not even know how that is operating. Are the energy providers being paid for administering it? How long do they have it in their accounts? Somebody who has already paid will not get the €150 but will get the use of extra electricity that they use.

Every day since Bord na Móna was closed down, the cost of electricity has gone up in this country, and the Minister of State cannot deny it. We have the highest cost for electricity in Europe at 47.12 cent per kWh, including taxes, while the European average is 26.34 cent per kWh. However, where has the regulator gone? Where is the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan? There is no account of the regulator; he has gone missing and he does not want to know. At the same time the cost of energy is driving up the cost of living. The Government claims this €150 credit is to address the increase in the cost of living. However, why is it not stopped at source? Why not stop and ensure that people only pay a proper and reasonable price?

Deputy Richard O'Donoghue

One in eight is in arrears on electricity bills. The price to produce electricity is €50 per kWh. The Government is allowing electricity companies to charge at €120 per kWh - that is what it is capped at. The Government then talks about a windfall tax. With all the VAT that applies even on the reduced price of electricity at the moment, the Government is still up compared with when it was at a lower cost because of tax. Who gets to pay the tax? It is the working people again. Not only is the Government taking tax from them on fuel at 50 cent per litre, it is now getting tax on energy in their homes. It then turns around to all the small businesses that are trying to stay open despite increasing costs right down to food and a cup of coffee. What has the Government done there? It is putting businesses out of business. Who is paying the extra tax on the cost of living? It is everybody who uses the businesses; it is taxed again. In the history of the State, the Government has never taken as much in taxes from the people at a time of an economic downfall. It has never taken as much money from the people. Whom does it hit the most? It is the working people in this country. I hope the Government Members get their answer at election time because I know what I will be giving them.

Deputy Carol Nolan

The Government and Tesco have a lot in common. Both seem to operate under the motto: "Every little helps". However, the problem is that often what is needed is not the little helps, but the big and bold policy moves such as making Ireland energy-efficient and independent. One such move could have involved supporting the Shannon LNG project or other forms of industrial exploration. Instead, all we get is a disconnected and semi-utopian reliance on renewables such as wind energy, which will in all likelihood never provide the kind of energy security we need.

It is the kind of energy security that would make the credits we are legislating for here totally unnecessary.

I draw the Minister of State's attention to the fact that during Leaders' Questions a few months ago I asked for the energy providers to be held to account and brought before the committee. I do not understand why that is not done. They are making profits. Giving credits to people is covering for these companies. It is not holding them to account for this. It is merely a sticking plaster over a wound and it is not fair on businesses or households. In my constituency many businesses have closed because of exorbitant energy costs, which is just not acceptable.

I also highlight, in regard to credits, the issue reported on by Sean Murray in the Irish Examiner a few weeks ago, when he noted that 14,000 electricity account holders did not receive the first tranche of €200 in credits issued by the Government. That means that over €2.4 million was given back to the Exchequer. This mess needs to be sorted out urgently.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae

I welcome this debate and the token of money being given, but that is what it is - a token - because the ever-increasing cost of energy is putting people under enormous stress. This Government, more than any other government, has been telling people to use more electricity, including electric cars and electric heating in homes, while the cost of it gets higher and higher and the supply of it gets shorter and shorter.

I do not want to let this opportunity go without reminding the Minister of State and her Government what the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, did with Shannon LNG, which would have given us a surety of energy in this country. He sabotaged it. He purposely, meaningfully and deliberately set out to sabotage it. The Tánaiste, Deputy Micheál Martin, went to north Kerry. He canvassed the area. He said, "Vote for my candidate and I will deliver an LNG facility here." When he came up to Dublin he forgot about north Kerry, south Kerry, mid-Kerry, east Kerry and west Kerry - he forgot about Kerry. He forgot about Limerick and forgot about Clare. All he wanted was to be Taoiseach or Tánaiste and to deliver all the Ministers and Ministers of State into the seats they are in. He forgot about the real people, however, the people of Ireland who wanted a surety of energy. It is because of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and the rest of them that we are finishing up in the situation we are in now, whereby we have less and less supply and are over-reliant on England, France and everywhere else for energy. The lights probably will go out eventually in this country. When they do, people will see the mess the Government is after making of everything. Its answer is to give people a couple of €150 credits and say that is great and we will forget about it. I am sorry, but that is not good enough. People may think this Government will be forgiven or forgotten for what it has done with regard to energy. The only thing it was successful in doing - it did it well - was attacking and shutting down Bord na Móna. My God, is that not a big boast for the whole lot of them to have? It is a big shame.

Deputy Michael Collins

I cannot understand why the Government is giving electricity benefits at all. It is robbing the people with one hand and giving them little tokens with the other. The bottom line here is that people are paying through the neck at the filling stations because the Government continues to increase the price of fuel, the price of a bag of coal for a person trying to light a fire and the price of home heating oil for the ordinary person. It taxes the people on their electricity bills, car fuel and home heating oil and taxes them through the hospitality sector, with the VAT rate increasing from 9% to 13.5%. What is wrong with the Government? Does it think the Irish people do not know what it is doing to them? People are at the end of their tether. They tell me all over my constituency. They are terrified of the next electricity bill. We were told the smart meter would be the revolution of Ireland. I do not know. Maybe I am wrong somewhere, but there is something furiously wrong because for most people I know who have put in a smart meter, their electricity bills have quadrupled.

The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has kicked Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael into a corner and whacked them into a false sense of security. Look what the Government did with the Barryroe opportunity, which would have made Ireland energy-independent. What are we doing instead? We are depending on the world to fuel our country and to put the lights on. What if the world decides it has a different agenda? The Government has backed the green agenda, which is a shocking and horrible agenda against the ordinary, hard-working rural Irish people, who will never forget the Government for what it has done. They are not forgetting the Government anyway because they tell me they are waiting for members of Government parties to come to their doors. They will talk to them if they will be left there long enough to hear what they have to say. It is shocking to listen to families not able to afford to buy food at the end of the week because the electricity bill has to be paid and, if it is not, the electricity might get cut off. That is a terrifying experience for anybody. People are sick to death of paying high rates of tax.

The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is back in the Chamber. The rural Independents have finished talking and he is coming back in now, of course. This is no time to come back, Minister. The crisis is here today. Stand before us and listen to what our people are telling us and do not be going away when we are talking and coming back when we are finished because we are talking on behalf of the people of this country, whom you crucify.

An Ceann Comhairle

Deputy, the Minister is entitled to come and go as he pleases.

Deputy Michael Collins

I know that, and I am too, but-----

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae

He will be gone soon enough.

Deputy Michael Collins

-----I am trying my best to get him to understand. He said to me last week that he was across the corridor. I have never personalised anything against a Minister, but I do have an issue with green policy that has pushed people into using electricity they cannot afford to use.

Deputy Fergus O'Dowd

I welcome this debate and the increased supports for account holders which were announced in the budget. They will all be very welcome. I am aware that many of my constituents are having extreme difficulties in paying their bills, notwithstanding the electricity credits they have received. I was with an employer yesterday who told me that one of her senior staff could not pay her electricity bill, a sum of €3,000. She has a large family and found it impossible to pay, so the employer paid it. There is pain and a lot of suffering out there, and the Government is dealing with it but it needs to do more.

We on this side of the House speak for the people as well. The people I want to talk about are a group the Minister is well aware of since I have raised this matter with him a number of times and last week raised it with officials of his Department. I refer to full-time residents of mobile home parks who are not account holders and do not have individual meters. There is a very small number of them. Many of them are in poor in health, many of them are elderly and many of them have to stay living full-time in a caravan or a mobile home in the middle of winter, which is a very difficult thing to do, and there are huge penalties health-wise involved in doing that.

The Department officials, in my meeting with them, and I welcome the fact that it took place, told me they are looking at a way I proposed of dealing with this whereby, if the community welfare officer, CWO, could affirm that the full-time resident - the person must be a full-time resident in a mobile home park and must not own any other property - is truly such a person, the Department could then find a way of paying those credits to them. They would not get a bill because it is the park owner that rates out the electricity to them and fixes that, which they then pay, so there is no issue, in my view. If they prove their bona fides, there is no reason the Department could not pay the funding. If they need a CWO to identify and prioritise that, that is fine. The difficulty is that the community welfare officer cannot pay that money if those residents have any funds in their accounts. Some of them have €4,000 or €5,000 or whatever to pay for their funerals when that time comes. If you are the rich guy in my constituency or yours, a Cheann Comhairle, if you live in Blackrock or wherever the bourgeois places are right around the country, fair do's to you, you get your credit, so why can the poor permanent resident freezing in his or her mobile home not get it as well?

I have a freedom of information, FOI, request on appeal to the Information Commissioner to find out exactly what is going on in the Department. I will appeal to the Ombudsman in this regard. I should not have to do all that, however. These people should not have to suffer in the way they are genuinely suffering. I accept and acknowledge that the Department is attempting to deal with this again a third time. It has looked after Travellers, and rightly so. It has looked after everybody in the country except these people. There are a very small number of them. They can be easily found. There are some of them in the Ceann Comhairle's constituency as well. I have letters from them.

I thank the Minister. I hope the negotiations with the CWOs will bear fruit and this money can be paid as it should be.

Deputy Martin Browne

For the past two years, Sinn Féin has been warning the Government that our electrically pricing system is dysfunctional. It is not working for the people but is clearly working for the companies which, through extended Government inaction, have made eye-watering profits off the backs of ordinary families. This has been allowed to continue right through until one part of the legislation that was supposed to deal with it was reintroduced in the House only recently. It took the best part of a year for that legislation to be introduced and the Government failed to address profits when they were at their peak in 2022.

The people in this country, like many people in Tipperary who have come to me at their wits' end about energy costs, have been let down. The one-off payments which were provided were eaten up as soon as they came in and people were left feeling little relief. The Government gives with one hand and it takes back with the other and people are left no better off.

In government Sinn Féin would provide the energy regulator with the power to stamp out anti-competitive behaviour and to regulate standing charges because this is a real issue which is impacting on the pressures that people face when their bills come in. We will force the hand of the energy companies by setting a price above which they cannot charge consumers and by reducing energy bills for households at a time of crisis. Any measures which help struggling families are welcome but when it comes to taking on the energy companies, this Government is short on courage and very long on delays.

Deputy Violet-Anne Wynne

I would like to welcome the three electricity credits proposed, but I am incredibly disappointed that the Minister has decided to decrease the credit from €200 last year to €150 this year. These decisions should not be taken in isolation and the decision to slash these credits is one that has been roundly condemned by NGOs and charities, especially knowing that the average household bills have increased exponentially in one year. This is deeply disappointing and I am sure the vast majority of people in this country consider that money well spent last year and the Minister does not need to take my word for that. Just three weeks before the budget, the Seanad Fine Gael finance spokesperson, Senator Maria Byrne, said that at least three €200 electricity credits, spaced out across the winter should be given to householders, so they can have some level of certainty around their utilities budget. When we talk about wholesale prices and inflation, it is important to remember that there are now two major wars taking place in the world that have and will continue to further inflate the consumer price index, which rose by 6.4% between September of last year and September of this year.

According to Threshold, 29% of Irish households are now estimated to be living in energy poverty. That is the highest number ever recorded. One in eight is living in fuel poverty and that risk is heightened if one is a renter.

Nearly 14,000 electricity account holders did not receive their first credit last year due to a number of issues with meter point reference numbers, MPRNs. Can we please work to ensure the same does not happen this year and that, if nothing else, we can prove that some lessons can be learned by this Government.

Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications (Deputy Eamon Ryan)

I very much regret that I had to leave briefly to attend to other business but I am very glad to have heard a good number of Deputies from the Opposition and Government benches. I very much appreciate what I sense is their support for this Bill. While recognising that it is a very speedy process, where we were not able to have pre-legislative scrutiny on the Bill, I believe the public would prefer us to be quick here so that we have a large number of households getting the first of the credits for the Christmas period.

I will respond to the various comments and points raised. One of these is that it is a lower support of €150 rather than the €200 in last year's three payments. That is done on a scientific basis in the assessment of where we are looking to close the gap to reflect the current situation, which is still one of historically high prices, but where we have seen price reductions of between 10% and 30% from some of the main operators in recent months. Subject to what goes on in the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine, I hope we can look forward to further reductions next year but it is still going to be high price environment. The price of gas today and the forward price of gas for the next number of months is still almost double the historic highs of the previous five, ten or 15 years.

These supports are appropriate and the analysis we have done shows they do protect and close that gap. There is a real benefit. I heard Deputy Sherlock asking whether we could look at a more targeted approach. That would be coming at the cost of us covering every family's needs and there are many families who may be caught and may not be beneficiaries of the social welfare increases we are providing at the same time. Ostensibly, they may look like they are in a reasonable category, but due to a variety of different circumstances, they may have real difficulty in paying their bills. Therefore, the Government's call was that it was appropriate to set this level of support alongside the very significant introduction of once-off and other social welfare increases. In terms of the budget overall, the most important graph we look at on every budget day is that with regard to who benefits most and this year it was again those on lowest incomes.

I accept Deputy O'Rourke's point that it would have been nice had we introduced a mechanism where vacant homes were not charged but we were not able to do that. We have to be upfront and honest about that. It required a good deal of work by my Department and I want to thank it for the work it has done. The delivery of, and this use of credits and their design, came from our Department. It was developed and delivered by our Department and I commend it on the work it has done. It looks simple, and some of the benefits of this approach have a certain simplicity, but it actually takes a great deal of co-ordination and legal consideration with regard to the use of the ESB networks and the use of the meters to make this work. It took that first iteration for us to be able to come back with confidence and to take this second approach which is more targeted.

On the representations made by Deputy O'Dowd with regard to full-time mobile home park residents and the fact that many could not receive payments under either scheme, I understand many of these residents have experienced difficulty. Our officials met with Deputy O'Dowd to discuss the matter and we are investigating the matter further.

Last year the issue of measures for Travellers were set out, specifically payments made to households who could not receive the payment under scheme I or II as a result of their MPRN being held by the local authority on a shared site. Payments were backdated to provide support which was not received under scheme I or II. Given the successful operation of these schemes, these measures will be introduced again. We have to ensure that all families, in particular families from the Traveller community, are able to avail of these schemes. Payments will be made to Traveller households on local authority sites and it is estimated that the bill for that will be some €500,000, which should be sufficient to cover any possible increase in the number of households, depending on the level of the electricity credit support schemes provided for in 2023 and 2024.

I completely accept this is not an easy time for energy bills and we all understand how difficult it is for households around the country. This Government has responded. Any assessment of international comparisons with regard to the supports which have been provided indicate that we have been as generous as we could be. This is the public's money we are using here.

It is not just the provision of credit payments. There has also been an ongoing engagement with the supply companies to ensure they are responding quickly to households' needs. We have seen bodies like the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, change the rules so we are not seeing disconnections in the coldest days in winter. We have worked very closely with the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and with other organisations to help households in difficulty. There are significant other funding arrangements to ensure households in particular difficulties are able to cope. We are not leaving anyone in the cold or without power and light. It is essential that we get through a potentially cold winter with older people and more vulnerable people not putting themselves in any health harm or in other difficult circumstances.

There are a whole range of other backstop measures with further social welfare provisions that will be applied, if there are any households in particular difficulty. It is that suite of measures and series of supports, one complementing the other, that will help people through this difficult period, including a significant ongoing increase in the retrofitting of buildings, the provision of solar panels, and the switch away from what is the core of this problem, which is our dependence on fossil fuels, in particular, imported gas which is so expensive.

I very much appreciate the chance to have had a Second Stage debate.

I understand we are to go on to Committee and Remaining Stages due to the time issues in this Bill. I look forward to engaging with the Deputies on that.

Question put and agreed to.