Dáil Éireann debate -
Wednesday, 9 Oct 2024

Vol. 1059 No. 4

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (Deputy Ossian Smyth)

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

The impact of the sharp rise in energy costs experienced in 2022 is still being felt. Households are paying on average 59% more for their electricity, and 90% more for their gas, than they were pre-crisis. This is despite the multiple rounds of price reductions announced by suppliers since 2023. Households are still in need of support to ensure they are not put under significant pressure to meet their energy costs this winter. It is of the utmost importance to the Government that nobody goes cold this winter and that everybody stays warm and well. For this reason, the Government is introducing this Bill to establish a further electricity costs emergency benefit scheme. The scheme will provide €250 to households over two payments of €125 between November and February. I commend the Bill to the House. I will now set out the further context underlying the need for the scheme, before outlining the detail of the Bill section by section.

We are all very aware that energy prices rose exceptionally over 2022 as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Actions taken by the Government and the regulator protected customers from the worst of these increases, and between late 2023 and 2024, energy prices have started to decrease. However, households are still paying significantly more for their energy than they were pre-crisis. It is undeniable that many households are struggling with these increased costs. The Government has introduced three electricity costs emergency benefit schemes to support households, between March 2022 and April 2024. In total, €1,250 has been provided to each household in direct, on-bill support. In addition, the Government introduced a submeter support scheme in 2023 to provide support to households whose electricity is supplied via a supplier submeter and who could not receive payments under the main scheme. This scheme provided support to an additional 5,000 households who did not automatically receive the credit payment. The Government has also ensured the payments have been provided to Traveller families living on local authority sites. Under these complementary measures to scheme III, 430 families received support over the winter of 2023 and 2024.

These schemes have had a significant impact on households, helping them meet their energy costs. The previous electricity credit schemes were highly successful in reducing the number of customers in arrears. Data provided by the regulator shows that decreases in arrears on electricity bills correlate with each payment and have been proven to prevent more significant numbers of people falling into entrenched energy poverty. Under scheme Ill, usage levels were assessed to ensure payments were withheld from low-usage electricity accounts to prevent the payment from being applied to vacant houses. Approximately 5% were identified as being low-usage accounts, resulting in the credit being withheld from more than 90,000 accounts. This equates to almost €40 million in savings to the Exchequer.

Budget 2025 provided a record €2.6 billion package of measures to support families, pensioners, carers and people with disabilities. This included changes to the means-test disregard for the fuel allowance to ensure more people aged 66 and over will qualify for the support from January 2025, as well as a lump sum payment of €300 to all recipients. This is in addition to a number of other targeted supports, including two double payments of child benefit before Christmas; a €200 once-off payment for pensioners and people with a disability receiving the living alone allowance; a payment of €400 to all carers receiving the carer’s support grant; a €400 disability support grant for people receiving the invalidity pension, disability allowance or blind pension; a €400 payment to families receiving the working family payment; an October cost-of-living double payment, followed by the Christmas bonus double payment in December; and a €100 child support payment, formerly the increase for a qualified child, on their social welfare payment. It is also important to mention the enhanced consumer protection measures that the Commission for Regulation of Utilities has recently announced will be in place for this winter.

A number of key measures introduced in recent years will remain in place, including a reduced debt burden on pay-as-you-go top-ups, better value for those on financial hardship meters as suppliers must place these customers on the cheapest tariff available, extended debt repayment periods, and suppliers being required to actively promote the vulnerable customer register and the protections it offers to customers. In addition, the moratorium on disconnections for all customers will be in place from 9 December 2024 to 17 January 2025. The moratorium for registered vulnerable customers will be in place from 1 November 2024 to 31 March 2025. I remind Deputies that any customer who is in difficulty should contact his or her supplier. Suppliers have additional supports in place, including hardship funds, and will not disconnect anyone who is engaging with them.

I will now provide a section-by-section summary of the Bill. There are 14 sections. Section 1 is a standard provision that provides for definitions.

Section 2 provides for the establishment of the scheme. It provides the basis for an estimation of the sum required and the allocation of the moneys for the scheme, up to €565.75 million, by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform.

Section 3 provides the legislative basis for the transfer by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, to the distribution system operator the moneys, up to €565.75 million, for the operation of the scheme. The moneys will be paid to domestic accounts in two payments, each of €125, including VAT, or €114.68, excluding VAT, in the November-December 2024 and January-February 2025 billing periods.

Sections 4 and 5 provide for the functions of the distribution system operator and suppliers, respectively, for the purposes of the operation of the scheme.

Section 6 provides that an electricity supplier will review its refusal to make a payment to a low-usage electricity account, if requested by a final customer, and sets out conditions under which the supplier may decide to award a payment.

Section 7 provides for the establishment of the submeter support scheme II. It provides the basis for the estimation of the amount required and the allocation of the moneys for the scheme by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform.

Section 8 provides the legislative basis for the transfer by the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, to electricity suppliers the moneys, up to €1.25 million, for the operation of scheme II. The moneys will be paid to supplier submeter accounts in two payments, each of €125, including VAT, or €114.68, excluding VAT, in the November-December 2024 and January-February 2025 billing periods.

Section 9 provides for the functions of suppliers in regard to the submeter support scheme Il.

Section 10 provides for the amendment of section 9 of the Electricity Regulation Act to create functions for the CRU, including for the purposes of oversight of the functions of the distribution system operator and suppliers and to ensure the operation of the administrative and operational arrangements necessary for the functioning of both schemes.

Section 11 deals with the amendment of the Taxes Consolidation Act 1997 to exempt the electricity costs emergency benefit payment and the submeter support scheme payment from income tax.

Section 12 provides for the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications to make regulations, with the consent of the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, for the purposes of the Act.

Section 13 provides that the distribution system operator and electricity suppliers shall bear their own expenses.

Section 14 contains standard provisions concerning the Short Title and commencement of the Act.

I have outlined the main provisions of the Bill and additional details on the sections. I thank Deputies for listening. I hope I have been of assistance to them. I look forward to discussing the Bill and working with Deputies across the House to progress it.

Deputy Darren O'Rourke

I am sharing time with Deputy Gould. I thank the Minister of State for his statement. We have been over this ground a number of times in discussing similar legislation. I broadly welcome this initiative as we go into the winter. I do not agree, however, with a number of provisions in the legislation. The assistance given should have gone further this winter. We will deal with that further on Committee Stage, which takes place later today. There are significant shortcomings in the Government's approach. We recognise, however, that ordinary workers and families need swift and urgent relief from high energy bills this coming winter. Therefore, Sinn Féin will seek to amend rather than reject the Bill.

Ordinary workers and families are facing into yet another extremely difficult winter. Households remain crippled under the weight of Ireland's exorbitantly high energy costs, which are far above the European average. Energy prices remain 70% to 80% higher than they were in 2022. More than a quarter of a million households are in arrears with their electricity bills, with more than one in five gas customers also in arrears. Calls to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and other organisations continue to skyrocket. Energy poverty is once again on the up.

Two credits of €125 each simply do not go far enough. This is compounded by the fact the first instalment of €125 will almost certainly be totally wiped out by the rise in network costs and in the public service obligation, PSO, levy announced by the energy regulator last month. Those increases, which are already in place, have the potential to add a staggering €140 to consumer bills over the year. Ordinary workers and families need more support to get through the cost-of-living crisis that continues to wreak havoc in people's lives. The Government must do more to provide relief. Sinn Féin has proposed an energy credit of €450 to account for the fact consumer bills have not fallen far enough or quickly enough. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are great at spin and bluster and claiming they have people's backs, but they are not prepared to put their money where their mouth is. Instead, they are content to waste millions of euro on phone pouches, bike sheds, security huts and the like.

In Sinn Féin, we recognise that these short-term measures, while essential in the face of Ireland's stubbornly high energy costs, are not enough on their own. This is because Ireland's energy market prioritises the corporate balance sheet over the needs of ordinary workers and families. Energy companies have almost free rein to run roughshod over consumers. Fianna Fáil, the Green Party and Fine Gael stand idly by, while rolling out the red carpet for data centres and acting as mere commentators when energy giants run off into the sunset with windfall profits in the midst of an energy crisis. The Government is content to keep applying a sticking plaster over a gaping wound that is bleeding the country dry. Ordinary workers and families are always left with the short end of the stick.

This is borne out by the fact Irish households pay the highest electricity prices in Europe. Before the market was liberalised, in which the Green Party had an important role, Irish energy prices were some of the lowest in Europe. Decades of bad planning and mismanagement by successive Governments led by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have created this mess. Yet, the Government is doing absolutely nothing to resolve it. To make matters worse, energy prices have fallen much more slowly here than they have in other EU states. Wholesale energy prices have fallen significantly and are now 75% lower than at their peak in 2022. After two years, those decreases have yet to be passed on to the consumer. The reason, we are told, is hedging. The regulator has absolutely zero ability to monitor or regulate such practices. There is zero oversight and that is totally unacceptable.

In Sinn Féin, we have a real diagnosis and real solutions. We have brought forward a suite of measures to tackle Ireland's high energy prices. We will hold energy companies to account, rather than the Government's approach of treating them with kid gloves. In our effort to fundamentally reorganise the energy market, our measures include steps to decouple wholesale gas from the price of electricity and reform the structure and distribution of the regressive PSO levy. We will regulate and restructure network charges to end the disproportionate burden these charges place on ordinary workers and families. We want to ensure large energy users such as data centres finally start to pay their fair share. Our legislation also ensures the regulator will have the mandate to hold energy companies to account when setting the standing charge, which is how network charges are passed on to consumer bills. We would curb excessive market freedoms. We would revise existing governance mechanisms to direct and support commercial semi-State bodies to meet higher renewable energy targets. We would amend the existing dividend policy to allow for greater levels of investment in renewable energy this decade. Achieving our climate targets can be part of a just transition.

To address the chaos in the energy market and tighten up the regulatory regime, we would strengthen the CRU's mandate by giving it new powers to regulate hedging practices and anticompetitive behaviours of energy giants. We would establish a hedging monitoring unit. There would be enhanced transparency and accountability via increased reporting responsibilities, bringing us in line with our European counterparts. We would also increase the resourcing of the CRU to carry out these new responsibilities.

In order to reduce energy prices, we need to build more renewables. It is the lack of progress by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael in this area that has left us overdependent on expensive imported fossil fuels and overexposed to the vagaries of the international market and geopolitical crises. This is why we in Sinn Féin have proposed the establishment of a renewable energy investment fund to invest in Irish energy independence, with increased public ownership of renewables in order that our vast natural resources can be translated into national wealth for all.

While we will not object to this Bill, we believe the credit should have been much higher. Sinn Féin is committed to addressing the inequity and dysfunction at the heart of Ireland's energy market for good, leading to lower prices over the long term.

Deputy Thomas Gould

We in Sinn Féin recognise that ordinary people are really struggling with the cost-of-living crisis and the failure of this Government to properly tackle it. We have the highest energy bills in Europe, including high gas bills. People are really struggling. That is why we believe the €250 the Government is offering does not go far enough. We believe that at least €450 needs to be given to workers and ordinary families to help protect them against this cost-of-living crisis. This Bill comes in today, the same day as we see the prices of petrol and diesel go up and solid fuel price increases that this Government brings in under the carbon tax. This Government is giving with one hand and taking with the other hand. At the end of the day, people have to get to work, school or college. In Cork at the moment, the bus service is in disarray. Fewer people are using the buses now because the Government did not fund Bus Éireann in Cork. At the same time, the Government is putting up the prices of diesel and petrol. This is a missed opportunity once again by this Government.

I also want to raise with the Minister of State the issue of low-usage customers. On Monday, at my clinic, a pensioner came in to tell me he did not get the last tranche of once-off payments because he was a low-usage customer. When I spoke to him and we checked it out, he needed to be on the vulnerable customers register, but nowhere has this Government told people that is what they need to do if they are vulnerable and are low-usage customers. The Government either wants people to get these energy credits or it does not. Once again we see the most vulnerable people being let down by this Government.

We are talking about what this Government is doing in the budget. May I make a few points to the Minister of State? As regards retrofitting, there are 11,000 social houses in the Cork City Council area. Does he know how many were retrofitted last year by the Government? Fifty-three houses. It would take 200 years to retrofit the houses in Cork city at that rate. The Minister of State sits there talking about climate change and the carbon tax. What about the people spending a fortune trying to heat their homes while the heat goes out through the windows, the doors, the attics and the walls because they cannot get retrofitting? I represent these communities, some of them with some of the worst, oldest and coldest houses in the State. What is in it for them? What is in it for the people of Cork? What is in it for all the people in social housing nationally?

The fact that 53 out of 11,000 houses in Cork were retrofitted last year is a shame on this Government. Government Members are only talking out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to the environment and climate change.

Deputy Ged Nash

I am pleased to speak on this Bill for the Labour Party. The State will have spent, I think, close to or in excess of €2 billion in energy credit payments since the onset of the energy crisis. We know only too well that this is by definition an untargeted measure. It is universal in nature and has been explained away as a once-off emergency measure to help people through a temporary crisis. I said it on budget day in my response and I will say it again: "once-off" is probably the most abused term in the Irish political lexicon. As Deputy O'Rourke said earlier, here we are again. I think what he meant by that was here we are again talking about once-off measures when what Irish households, especially those in energy poverty, need is considerably more support.

When I speak about more support, I do not mean only direct, immediate financial support; I mean the forms of retrofitting to which Deputy Gould has referred. There is a distinct lack of ambition from the Department and the SEAI this year. There is less than an additional €50 million on the retrofitting side, when actually what we need is a retrofitting revolution. The Labour Party has made it very clear. We were first out of the traps to describe in conceptual terms what we would do with the Apple tax windfall that this Government seems to think is a problem and not an opportunity. We would use a considerable amount of that resource to engage in what we call a street-by-street retrofitting revolution. That is what we need, instead of tinkering around at the edges with piecemeal measures that are by definition untargeted. I rarely make the point that TDs are different, that they do not need this, that and the other, but I would argue that there is probably nobody here who requires this kind of support this year, last year or the year before. There are, however, many more of my constituents, working people and people who rely on the State for their incomes, who could do with a hell of a lot more.

The "once-off" excuse just does not wash any longer. Surely it should not be beyond the ken of very experienced experts in the Department and elsewhere to come up with a scheme that is more targeted and is focused on those who need more support, those who are actually at risk of energy poverty and those who are in energy poverty. We know who they are. They are rural dwellers reliant on fossil fuels. They live in cold, damp, non-retrofitted homes. They could do with deep retrofits. They could do with the addition of solar panels and solar energy or heat pumps to assist them. They are the families on the working family payment, whom we in Labour have said should all be included in the fuel allowance scheme.

We are grateful and appreciative to see that those in receipt of the carer's allowance above certain thresholds will receive the fuel allowance. I notice, however, that the fuel allowance has been extended more or less to everyone - within income thresholds, of course - between the ages of 66 and 70. That is interesting. I am not sure, because I have not read the evidential basis for that, but we know there is an election coming along and it will be popular on the doors. How cynical can you get? What about the fuel allowance rate itself? The rate has not been increased in a number of years. We know that just over one in eight people in Ireland are living in energy poverty, and this measure does little to help that figure come down. It is hard to make the case for any form of energy credit. Given, however, the fact that these credits have now become a recurring feature of the system, though many of us on this side of the House would say they need to be brought to an end, most parties included a form of credit in their costed alternative budgets but with measures to claw back or better target. We in Labour extended a levy on the still very high profits of energy companies in order to pay for this. The responsibility would not then be landed on the Exchequer, on the taxpayer, at somebody else's expense. That money could then be better deployed to those who actually need it. We would have extended the levy on energy companies to pay for additional resources, especially for those who are in energy poverty.

It is interesting to note as well that merely by switching provider, the gain would be greater than what one would get from an energy credit. We would always encourage people, of course, to identify where they may be able to get better deals. That in itself, however, gives an insight into some of the fat involved for the energy providers. Energy companies are enormously profitable. The wholesale price of gas has come down considerably. We remember, of course, that when the wholesale price of gas went up, the energy companies were very quick indeed, notwithstanding hedging, to impose additional high costs on consumers. They are not as quick to bring energy prices down for the ordinary consumer.

The Minister of State will be interested in the ESRI research published today. It says that regulatory delays in development of energy infrastructure leads to both increases in electricity prices - 10%, it says - and an inevitable increase in carbon emissions, by 4%. The longer the delays in rolling out renewable infrastructure and energy infrastructure more generally, the more reliance there is on fossil fuel energy generation and supply. There is a logic to that. We understand that. In a way, the study points to problems we are already aware of. One of the things the report proposes is more frequent application windows for grid connection and parallel, or at least better, co-ordination between regulators. Getting our own act together in this space would bring down costs for consumers, bring down emissions more quickly and give certainty to investors who may not be all that confident about investing in Ireland's energy infrastructure and in renewable energy production, such as offshore wind, for example.

Offshore wind is billed, including by the former Taoiseach, Leo Varadkar, who is right, as our moonshot moment.

It would create the sustainable jobs of the future, which I know the Minister of State knows and believes, endless supplies of clean energy, massive reductions in emissions and energy security for this country. It is a no-brainer that we, as a State, do what the Labour Party has proposed, that is, to invest some of the Apple windfall money and resources from our newly created sovereign wealth funds into the future in taking direct investments and stakes to make offshore wind happen at the scale we need. We need this to happen at scale and we need that to happen now. The returns should be obvious. It would send a signal to investors that we, as a State, have the confidence to make this happen. It is the classic no-brainer. A direction, in my view, ought to be given to the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, which is governed under the aegis of NTMA, on this very critical matter, not just with regard to national environmental policy but also with regard to national enterprise and social policies.

As has been said, Ireland is among the countries with the highest energy prices in the European Union. In the Labour Party’s view, this should be the subject of an independent examination. This needs to be considered in great detail and it needs to change. Some of the levers available to Government and to the regulator need to be used to bring those costs down until we get to the point where we can develop offshore wind at scale to bring energy prices down for homes and where we can engage in the retrofitting revolution that is needed in this country to save householders money and to reduce emissions. That is the case we in the Labour Party make. That is what ought to be happening. That is the kind of big vision and ambition that was lacking in the Government’s budget announced last week.

Deputy Martin Kenny

Energy prices and the cost of fuel are some of the biggest issues facing people. I am always intrigued when I hear many of the various organisations that comment on the economy warning against investment in infrastructure and how it could create inflation. The truth is that the two biggest drivers of inflation in this country are the costs of housing and energy. Investing in those two areas will help bring inflation down. That is why it is vital the Government recognises that Ireland having among the highest electricity prices in Europe is a situation that needs to be tackled. There are a number of ways of tackling that.

When it comes to people’s homes in particular, we also have to look at the issue of retrofitting. We need to make sure the people who need the most help, that is, the people with the coldest homes, the least amount of opportunity and in the poorest position to try to do anything about it, are given the most help to ensure they can invest in retrofitting their homes, obtain solar panels and all of that work. People want to do it. I am in contact with people across my constituency all the time who want to engage in those things. The difficulty, however, is that they have a mortgage, a car loan, children in school and all these other things and payments which put them in a position in which they cannot afford to take the loans the Government offers for them to do it. It is simply not possible for them to take on more debt at a time when they are not able to afford what they already have.

While the Government is doing a little bit in this regard to help people, there is so much more that needs to be done in a planned and rational way to ensure we tackle the issue of high energy and electricity costs as well as the issue of our housing sector.

Deputy Jennifer Whitmore

This is the third year in a row debating emergency-----

Deputy Ged Nash

It is the fourth year in a row.

Deputy Jennifer Whitmore

This is the fourth year in a row in which we are debating emergency measures and talking about one-off payments. At what stage is it no longer an emergency and a one-off payment? The fact it is being referred to in this way is indicative of a Government that has far too much money with no vision, ideas or real solutions to these problems which face so many people. If the Government had vision and ideas that were focused on the real needs and problems, we would not be here debating emergency measures today. We should be talking about the impacts of energy poverty, who it is affecting and who is feeling the most pain from it because there are so many people in our country who are feeling it. The Government should be outlining measures to target and specifically help those individuals rather than using the public purse as an election and vote-getting mechanism, which is, unfortunately, the approach it has been taking.

When we look at the Government’s approach, there are a number of key problems. The non-targeting of these kinds of supports is inflationary. A huge number of people who do not need this money will get it. This is something I have said year in and year out since the Government started bringing in these emergency measures. At this stage, the Government has now spent approximately €100 million in energy credits on holiday homes. If people have a holiday home, they do not need to be getting an electricity credit. That is just not necessary for those particular homes. A person’s second home does not need the electricity or energy credit. If those people are who the Government is targeting and if that is where it wants public money to go to, then its moral compass is all wrong. It is inflationary. That has been pointed out by a number of financial experts in respect of those budgetary measures.

I also say to the Minister of State, Deputy Smyth, who is a Green Party TD, that this measure is also anti-climate because it is essentially a fuel subsidy which is going to people who do not necessarily need it. I do not know whether any costings have been undertaken or whether that risk has been looked at of the Government just throwing these energy credits out to people resulting in the economic incentive to reduce energy use not being applied to those people. For the people who do not need this money, the Government is essentially giving it to them and telling them to leave the electricity on as much as they want and to spend the energy credit. It is giving people an extra energy credit when they do not actually need it. The Social Democrats has been clear in saying from the get-go that this money needs to be targeted because, as I said, there are a lot of people in this country who suffer from energy poverty. Unfortunately, they are not the ones who will get the main support from this.

The energy scheme proposed by the Social Democrats was based on the schemes brought in during Covid-19 whereby a family or a household’s income would be used and where there would be a stepping stone. There would be an incremental increase based on the income of the family as to the amount of money they get through the scheme. That would have been a targeted and fairer way to do it. It would have been a better way to use our public purse and resources. It also would not have added to the inflationary aspect of this.

Being in opposition, we are always told we do not have any solutions. I will, however, give the Minister of State a solution, which I have raised with him previously. If the Government wants to help people in the long term to deal with energy security and with the high energy prices people have been seeing in recent years, it must give them the ability to generate their own electricity. I cannot understand, and I have said this repeatedly to the Minister of State, why this Government seems to have completely turned a blind eye to the potential of solar panels and solar energy, particularly for households on low incomes. The potential for this is enormous. I do not understand why the Government is not supporting it. A total of 1.3 million homes across this country have roofs which are suitable for solar panels. It could reduce CO2 emissions by 360,000 tonnes and cut people’s bills by €500 on average. While the potential for this is enormous, what we are seeing from the Government is that the grants it offers are being cut annually by €300. The grant for the battery was removed, which is key to having solar panels as it gives that level of flexibility.

I do not understand why the Government is continually cutting this when there are so many households for whom the high upfront cost of getting solar is a huge barrier.

What has been said to me when I have raised this is that we now have the low-cost loan scheme. However, that cannot be availed of if it is just for solar. The solar measure is not sufficient. If you just want to put solar panels on your home, the low-cost energy loan scheme is not available to you. With all its policy measures, the Government is preventing people on low incomes from getting solar panels. These are the very people who should be assisted in becoming more energy secure and dealing with energy costs. These are the people at most risk of energy poverty.

Similarly with the warmer homes scheme, there is no facility for solar. I am not sure why the Government is ignoring solar. I do not know the reason. At the moment, the Government is not really making solar affordable to people or offering it to them.

Just last week, we got solar in my home. On the day in question, I left the house at 8.30 in the morning, at which time there were four lads up ladders on the roof, and got a call at 2 o’clock in the afternoon from my husband to say we were completely off grid and had generated a full battery’s worth of energy. He said the tumble dryer was on and that we were not taking electricity from the grid, which was fantastic. We were in a position to pay the upfront costs, but many are not. The average cost of installing solar is around €8,000 to €10,000. Many would not be able to afford that. My family and I are blessed that we could, but it should not be the case that only those who can afford it can have access.

The reality is that the initiative is not just something that would be good for households because, as a country, we need to cut our emissions. We have targets we need to hit. If we do not hit them, we will face a fine of €8 billion. In this regard, consider all the various measures and the reports on emissions that are coming out. I have heard Government representatives state repeatedly that it is great that our emissions are down by 6% this year. That is nowhere near where we should be. We have a 51% reduction target we have to meet. The majority of the 6% reduction is not even from policies the Government has introduced. It is actually attributable to our taking more electricity from the UK, whose emissions are not taken into account in our accounting books. On top of that, there is the issue of the reduction in the use of fertiliser nitrogen. This is because of high prices, not because Government policy has achieved anything. There is no guarantee that if the prices come down, nitrogen use will not go up again.

The one area where we see emissions reductions year on year is that of residential homes. That is because people want their homes to be less energy costly and more energy efficient. They are prepared to invest in their homes if they can. The Government should not prevent people who do not have the financial resources to retrofit or install solar panels from playing a part in the climate journey we are all on. Those people should be able to play a part. It would help not only to reduce our emissions but also to secure energy security and deal with the big problem of energy poverty we have in this country. By way of a simple measure, the Government could include solar in the better energy warmer homes scheme. That would be a first step, but the Government also needs to revise the grants it is giving, stop the rowing back regarding grants and, instead, target them at people who need them. If it does this, we can really talk about a true just transition in this country.

Deputy Cormac Devlin

I welcome the opportunity to examine the Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024. The climate action committee waived pre-legislative scrutiny of it, as it has done for other Bills, to ensure the credits land on time for householders and that the work behind the scenes can be done for householders to benefit.

The €250 energy credit will be spread over two payments. The first, €125, will be credited from 1 November, while the second will be from 1 January 2025. This will be at a cost of €500 million for 2024.

I have spoken before about these credits. The feedback on them has been exceptionally positive. Although energy prices were higher last year than they were this year, the credits will still be very much welcomed by householders this year to cover the cost of energy. These costs are still too high, and we acknowledge that. Critically, while we have seen a reduction in energy prices, many people have not had the opportunity to change supplier or indeed benefit from reductions. This is particularly the case for people who are not online. Will the Minister of State ask the commission to engage with these people to ensure they have all the information they need to switch supplier?

It was disappointing to hear some of the voices in this Chamber saying the payments were not necessary. The payments have been essential for many to this day. Given that the cost of energy is still high, these payments are still very much welcome and needed. Those who have spoken against the energy credits today or poured cold water on the idea that they are now required will soon realise, when they return to knocking on people’s doors, how welcome they actually are and how they give people a little relief at a time of high costs.

I welcome this important Bill and hope it is passed as soon as possible to give those we spoke about the support they need over the coming months, especially the heavy winter months.

Deputy Martin Browne

What is clear after the budget is that there is no Government plan to alleviate the pressures placed on households by the energy companies. While short-term measures are needed, Sinn Féin knows that to address the dysfunction in the Irish energy market, longer term measures also need to be taken. Wholesale energy prices have fallen by 75% since their peak, yet households are still paying 70% to 80% more, and 30% to 40% are in energy poverty because the energy market does not function for ordinary workers or families. The Government continued with the weak regulatory regime despite Sinn Féin introducing legislation to empower the regulator to hold the companies to account.

I disagree with Deputy Devlin. Although households need a one-off payment, which we welcome, the approach being taken is the problem. The first credit will be wiped out by the PSO levy and the network costs announced recently, so it is not all roses. Most of the money is gone after the first increase and that is why we would have increased the energy credit to €450.

The issue goes deeper, however. The design of the levy itself is wrong. It focuses on the peak rather than the total demand, which obscures trends and results in the burden being borne disproportionately by households relative to the data centres or other large energy users. The restructuring of the PSO levy and the reform of the electricity market are needed. Sinn Féin would address the dysfunction, which was enabled by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. These parties were all instrumental in putting up the prices in the Irish market.

Deputy Richard Boyd Barrett

Of course, nobody who receives this credit before or after Christmas will be sorry to do so. As the ESRI has pointed out, however, the net effect of the Government’s budget is that some of the least well-off and most vulnerable households will be marginally less well off. That is pretty shameful. Given the astonishing, unprecedented budget surpluses and, of course, the Apple billions, it is quite a feat. Even the ESRI, which is hardly a radical or left-wing think-tank, is saying the Government had the chance to eliminate poverty but did not take it and that some of the most vulnerable will actually end up worse off.

This is, first of all, an epic fail with those resources available to the Government. It begs the question that if poverty cannot be eliminated now, with an absolutely unprecedented budget surplus and billions of euro available to the State, to the point that billions have to be put away in a piggy bank, when is it going to be eliminated? The answer is that if poverty cannot be eliminated now, it is never going to be eliminated because there will always be other excuses when times become more financially constrained, the economy hits bumps and so on.

It is shameful that the Government, instead of eliminating poverty and setting out the complete elimination of poverty, including energy poverty, as an objective with all those resources available, gave us a couple of once-off payments that act as sticking plasters on a situation where one third of households in this country are at risk of or suffering from energy poverty. The big problem is the fact that because of the profiteering of energy companies in this country, we are paying twice the price of electricity being paid by the rest of Europe, on average, and we are paying 50% more for gas. Profiteering is the problem. Most of the money, as welcome as it will be for those who receive it who are struggling to pay their bills, will go into the pockets of profiteering energy companies instead of addressing the root problem, which is the profiteering in the first place. That is what we believe the Government should do, whatever about the other measures that are necessary in order to eliminate poverty and raise people out of poverty.

For example, in our alternative budget we stated the fuel allowance should be increased by 20%. Many of those who depend on social welfare payments now do not get the fuel allowance, because a person has to be on it for a certain amount of time. If a person is on a benefit payment, for example, the person does not get the fuel allowance at all. That is wrong. People should get an increased fuel allowance. More generally, social welfare and pension rates should be raised to the level that it takes everybody out of the poverty trap. That is what we proposed in our budget.

On the specific area of energy, as the Minister of State knows, we believe we should control the price of energy to prevent profiteering. We brought forward a Bill in 2024 precisely to that end, which, needless to say, the Government does not support. The energy companies have enjoyed an absolute bonanza in recent years. They have benefited spectacularly from the cost-of-living crisis that has crucified ordinary working people and seeing their profits go through the roof. It is true that ESB profits are slightly down on the astronomical levels they were enjoying in previous years, but they are still astronomical profits. Last year, profits of €446 million were made, and there were similar increases for all energy providers in recent years. The companies doing well out of the cost-of-living crisis are driving approximately one third of our population into energy poverty. However, the Government refuses to do anything about it. In fact, the Government provides a subsidy for them via the pockets of those affected by energy poverty, rather than address the profiteering itself. The once-off payments the Government is giving people will undoubtedly be better than nothing at all, given the inflated bills people will have to face over the winter months, but they do not address the underlying problem. When someone asks why energy prices are higher in this country than anywhere else, the answer is the deregulation of the energy sector in this country.

As I mentioned, we are now paying twice as much for electricity as the EU average, and 50% more on gas, but before we removed the not-for-profit mandate of the ESB and deregulated the sector we had the lowest electricity and energy costs in Europe. The promise that deregulation, competition and privatisation would deliver lower electricity and energy costs turned out to be a complete lie. The opposite happened. Since deregulation, privatisation and the removal of the not-for-profit mandated ESB, the cost of electricity and energy in this country has risen steadily and reached stratospheric levels during the height of the cost-of-living crisis in recent years. It imposed terrible hardship on some of the poorest, worst-off and most vulnerable people in this country. We should reverse that and take the energy sector back under full public control. We should run it as it was done in the past on a not-for-profit basis, because providing people with energy, the means to heat their homes and so on should not be a privilege. There should not be a situation where people are afraid to turn on the heating or use too much hot water in case the bills get out of hand. That is the reality of this situation. That is the human reality. The Minister of State and I know that when we knock on doors in the coming weeks or whenever the election is called, we will meet many people, particularly older vulnerable people, who will be afraid to have showers or turn on the heating when they need it and will be shivering in the cold because of the fear that the energy bills they get will be unpayable, even with these two credits. That is the issue we need to address. We should not have vulnerable and older people living in fear of just keeping their houses warm or having hot water. We could do that if we used the money and resources available for us to take the energy sector back fully under public ownership and run it on a not-for-profit basis. My God, now more than ever, we have the resources that would allow us to do that.

Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú

I do not think there is anybody out there who will not welcome some element of help regarding payments. I accept there is a significant number of people who will not need this, but any of us who knock on doors have come across people in last while who are under severe pressure. The Government is talking about €250 as a one-off payment, whereas we should be talking about €450 or something significant. A major part of that is the fact that the PSO levy and network charge changes are going to knock out the first payment of €125. It is the old phrase of giving with one hand and taking away with the other. I do not know how many people have said that to me in the last while, even with regard to the budget.

As much as that is our proposal, we also know that a major part of what needs to happen is wholesale reform of the energy market and sector. We need to deal with hedging practices. We know that the Government absolutely failed to put in place proper windfall taxes, and what it did it only did under pressure from the EU. We need to make sure the CRU has the proper powers and we have a decent regulatory framework. I would also mention the retrofit scheme and state that Louth County Council's target in 2023 was 105. It was able to draw down more money and deal with 205 retrofit projects. The target for this year is 140. That does not look like the council is doing the business it should be. We also accept that when Louth County Council is dealing with the worst cases, 35% are those who most need it and the other 65% do not require quite as much retrofitting.

That is down to the financing. Louth County Council has a greater capacity. The number of houses is least 4,200. I do not know how we are going to reach that by 2030. I do not think we are next to near it but Louth County Council has the capacity and we need to make sure the Government puts real effort into giving to those who can deliver.

Deputy Michael Collins

I am not going to stand here and say people will not welcome the rebate for energy costs. Of course, they will welcome it in very difficult times with the rising costs of energy, which are sky-rocketing to an extraordinary level. Without the Government tackling the energy companies as to where they can make savings, I know people can make savings by ringing around. I contacted a telephone company today and saved about €150 per month just by picking up the phone and ringing. Electricity companies have overcharged ordinary people. You see so many businesses in serious trouble because of energy costs. Last week, the Government made a serious own goal by not reducing VAT for the hospitality sector. These businesses are facing enormously difficult challenges. It is obvious that its backbenchers did not sell the Government the reality of the story because the issue is the same regardless of whether you are in west Cork, Tipperary, Kerry, Limerick or Donegal. If you are running a business and open an electricity bill, you know you are in trouble. The Government has no interest in small businesses. It put the VAT rate up to 13.5% to destroy those businesses and has closed at least 600 of them in a short space of time. Some people argue that the hotel sector is different and is doing well but the bottom line is that the Government could have separated the VAT. It could easily have done that but it will not do that because it is tax-hungry. The Government will give a bit of an electricity rebate but it will turn around and put fuel up so everybody arriving at filling stations the next day will find that the cost of fuel has gone up by about two cents. This is more than what people can afford. That is the Government's way of attacking ordinary people. The Government is throwing bad money on top of bad money. We all know about the mobile phone pouches, the bike shed and the €1.4 million for the security hut when we cannot keep a Russian out. All of this money is being wasted but at the same time, businesses that are trying to survive cannot survive the way things are.

Deputy Mattie McGrath

The Government is failing to deal with the real issues. I am not going to say that I do not welcome the once-off payments and double payments but it is nothing short of an election gimmick. The real problem is the cost of energy and the gouging by the energy companies. We have the highest gas, oil and electricity prices in Europe. Why is that? This is what needs to be tackled instead of coming in here after the budget every year and passing legislation to give money back to people. We are taking it off them in the first instance. Carbon tax has already been added to people's bills. It is crippling people. The Government will tell us it is necessary to help retrofitting. Figures were given out regarding all the houses in Tipperary waiting to be retrofitted. It would take 200 years to do it so let us be serious here and be fair. The Government should stop coming in here every year to give some money back to people mar dhea. It sounds great for politicians out canvassing in the election that is due to be called - whenever the dog sees the rabbit and that has to come very soon - but the Government will be like rabbits in headlights because the people know what is going on. They see the money going out of their bank accounts. They see the cost of living, oil, gas and electricity and they know the companies are running off to the banks with the huge profits they are making but yet the Government will not deal with those issues with which ordinary people must try to live. The Government should be able to stop these big companies from milking people. Regardless of whether they are farmers, householders or people going to work, they are being overcharged and ripped off and it is totally unfair.

These measures are only tinkering around the edges. The Ceann Comhairle heard me say before that it is like rubbing butter on a fat sow’s you-know-where. It is not dealing with the problem. It is gimmickry of the highest order, particularly giving it in October before the election to make people feel good. They will know the cost in January when we have snow, wind and rain and if we have a harsh spring. The Government's gimmicks will be like snow on a ditch with your paybacks, they will be gone. I know the sow will probably be in the butcher shop but people will not be able to afford it. The Government should deal with the real problems, and not gimmickry.

Deputy Richard O'Donoghue

Is the election coming? All you have to do is look at the Government's social media to find people saying the handouts have started to try to fool the people of Ireland. After the mistruth when the Government said it was going to go the full term, it will be interesting how the Taoiseach handles this when he comes back after he told everyone in the country the Government was going to go the full term. Now it looks like the Government is handing out sweets.

I welcome any funds that come back to the people of Ireland because the Government has been taking money off them hand over fist, but one-off payments do not represent a pay-off for the people. We want long-term solutions. To produce a kilowatt of electricity costs €50 and the Government has tapped that they can charge up to €120 per kilowatt hour. That is a problem. I have listened to people going into the shops and coming out with one bag of groceries where previously they had two so a once-off payment is not going to fix this. The people of Ireland know this because for the past five years, they have seen excessive inflation. All the Government is doing is giving them a small token of the amount of money it has taken off them. That is what they are getting - a token at election time to buy the Government votes. Every person in Ireland needs to understand this.

The Government increased carbon tax. This was backed by Sinn Féin when it voted for the carbon tax. The once-off payment will not help with this either because the Government is taking it off them as well. People in Ireland need to understand that the Government giving them a once-off payment when they are vulnerable means that it is treating them with the height of disrespect because it has no long-term plan. It has been here five years, has managed to drive inflation through the roof and has brought hardship to this country. The people of Ireland need to realise this at election time.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae

This is not robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is robbing Paul to pay back Paul and robbing Paulette to pay back Paulette. It is crazy beyond belief. It is obviously a gimmick. If the Government was serious about doing anything about energy costs, it would have gone back to 2016 when it supported Shannon LNG and when Shannon LNG was in the programme for Government and would have left it there. Instead it capitulated in 2020 to the Green Party and instead of supporting LNG, it went completely against it. We also had the horrific scenario of a Minister objecting to the entire project in a formal way, which was horrendous. What we were telling the people of Ireland was that we were going to produce less and less energy at a higher and higher cost and that they should use more and more of it because the Government wants us to use electric cars and heat our houses by purely electrical means. When massive extra costs are involved, the answer is to give people a few euro before the election to take the harm out of it in the hope that they will say "well aren't you great people?". The funny thing about it is that those involved in this Government are not great people because they have no common sense and no planning. It is like the budget. The budget was all money but no plan. There is something lacking in this Government and it is joined-up thinking because it makes a decision one day that costs a fortune, it does something stupid and then it tries to cover it over the following day. I could be one of these people on this side of the House who is shouting, roaring and giving out all the time. Some of them are over around that corner there.

They could not say anything good about their grandmother not to mind anybody else. When I see Ministers doing the right thing, I compliment them, and I am very complimentary. We have very good people on that side of the House. There are people I look up to who I respect and people who have been around the block a long time. They know politics and how Ireland ticks. Then, my goodness, there are other lonesome soldiers and I am afraid they leave a lot to be desired. The electorate hopefully will sort everything out. It will decide who it wants or who it does not want.

Lest anyone had thought I would welcome this, or say it was great and give the Government a clap on the back, it is robbing with one hand and giving it back to people just in time for the election. It is inherently wrong. We must be straight in our politics and our business and be straight with the people.

Deputy Jennifer Murnane O'Connor

There have been challenges. I was listening to previous speakers. Emergency measures are important to help people pay their bills. We have to realise that there are people who are struggling. We are aware of that. Look at all the good work that has been done in the schools and so on. A lot of work has been done but I know we have a lot more to do.

Both these credits worth €250 are needed as the cost of living remains high, despite inflating easing. We need to pass this Bill and I am supporting it, so that householders can receive the first energy credit of €125 available to consumers after 1 November, whenever their utility bill falls, and the second credit for the same amount from 1 January 2025. However, due to the nature of the billing, different bills fall on different dates in different households. Every day lost would result in around 35,000 people daily not receiving the first credit until 2025 so we need to pass this urgently.

Last time I raised a big issue, which was raised with my office. Some people who were not using enough electricity did not qualify. It does not matter if one has a small bill or a big bill, regardless of the amount, one should get a payment. Will the Minister of State clarify whether it is the case that someone who is not using enough electricity cannot qualify for this? Many elderly people came into me. They might live in small one-bedroom houses. They were minding their money when they might have turned on their electricity. They need to qualify for this too but they did not get it the last time. I understand that it was being looked at and payments should have been made. The Minister of State might check that out for me. However, it is an issue that I felt needed to be addressed. We need to make sure everyone gets this.

I also wish to ask the Minister of State about renters who pay their electricity and what mechanism is there for them to get the credit as well. Renters raised this issue to me last time. These are issues we need to answer and they are issues that Members of the Oireachtas need to be able to tell constituents about.

This is a good measure. I wish it could be a lot more. I wish the Government could put more money into the emergency measure but it is important that we get the payment to people as soon as possible. That is what I mean about the billing. I ask the Minister of State to come back to me on those matters, so that I have the correct information to give to people. Overall, however, I will support the Bill.

Deputy Joan Collins

I echo the 75% of people in a poll published at the weekend who said this budget was an attempt to buy the next election. This budget was a give-away budget to hide from the electorate that the Government has given up on making any real or structural change in the country. It ignored calls made across civil society, by the Dáil and by people living in poverty, in deprivation, on low pay and fixed incomes that there would be targeted relief. I have no problem with universal cost-of-living payments to help everyone make ends meet. People will welcome it. They want to get over the hump and Christmas is coming but when you make those payments without any real investment in services or any targeted relief for those who need it, you leave people further behind in the long run. This budget put the electoral chances of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael ahead of the most vulnerable in our society. This Bill is typical of a budget that ignored those who most needed help. We needed a targeted effort to get help to those on the sharp end of struggling to afford energy costs and who are in fuel poverty. We needed a State-led campaign to retrofit the houses of those who cannot afford it. We need permanent changes to social welfare schemes to guarantee nobody experiences energy poverty.

The Government failed to make those changes because time and again it has proved that it is ideologically incapable of intervening in the economy in a structural way. It throws money at voters and hopes the market will sort out everything in the end. That belief has been proven wrong time and again. That belief is why this country’s housing, health and public services are in the state they are.

Energy poverty has been exacerbated by some of the worst energy prices for years. In 2019 Ireland was in the top five countries for energy hikes. By 2022 there were 377,415 people unable to keep their homes warm and some 453,918 who had gone without heating and 469,218 people in utility arrears. The ESRI estimated that 29% of the country experienced energy poverty in 2022. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul estimated that it could peak at over 40% of the country experiencing energy poverty. While vulnerable people were unable to heat their homes, pay their bills or keep themselves warm, giant energy made tens of billions of euro in profits while Irish household energy costs rose at twice the EU average. In 2022 the ESB Group's profits rose by €679 million. Bord Gáis Energy’s profits rose by €948 million, SSE’s rose by €1.5 billion and Energia’s by €178 million. That is nearly €9,000 profit for every person who was unable to keep their homes warm across just four energy companies.

On top of energy poverty the budget did nothing to make any real State intervention for people experiencing deprivation or poverty. Deprivation rates are going up. More than 559,800 people are living in poverty of whom 176,900 are children. Those people needed targeted help. Instead, successive budgets have failed to keep social welfare and pensions in line with inflation. Furthermore, it is now clear that the Government has broken its promise on to implement the living wage for 2026. Ireland has some of the highest instances of low pay in the EU. This Government’s failure to implement its own policies on the living wage and its insistence on maintaining a voluntarist system of labour relations will make in-work poverty worse.

This is a budget that prioritises votes over people struggling to make ends meet. If the Government does not make targeted and permanent increases, once the once-off payments are gone, many people will be left further behind. I raised this two weeks ago. The household benefit energy benefit payments have not increased for four years. It now barely covers the standing charges. That is four years of some of the sharpest energy price increases eating into a vital lifeline for people. The Government again failed to extend the fuel allowance to those on the working family payment. That is something we have called for time and again.

I know the Government increased the budget for social housing retrofitting but my colleague on Dublin City Council, Councillor Pat Dunne, who has 13 years experience of dealing with the maintenance and regeneration of social housing, just cannot see how an additional €90 million will retrofit 250,000 social homes next year. The Government also failed to reform its retrofitting plan which leaves thousands of people living on social housing waiting years for improvements and leaves those on low pay or renting out almost completely.

Deputy Maurice Quinlivan

The €250 energy credit does not go far enough, as my colleagues have said. It is quite simply a gesture and does nothing to address runaway energy costs in this State under this Government. The Government has put together a once-off stunt while it has studiously avoided addressing the outrageous burden that these energy costs place on workers and their families. Householders are paying 60% more for their electricity than they did in December 2020. We have an energy market that does not function for families but instead prioritises the profits of these companies. Therefore, while we support the credit it does not go far enough and again the Government has ducked reforming our energy sector. Irish households pay the highest electricity costs in Europe yet wholesale prices have fallen and this has not been passed on to Irish consumers.

The first credit will be taken by a rise in the public service obligation levy, so there will be no real benefit to householders.

In our alternative budget, we propose a credit of €450 at an overall cost of €900 million. It would have provided families with a break while we work towards ridding our energy system of the dysfunction that prevails in it, such as decoupling wholesale gas prices from the price of electricity and ensuring network charges are justifiable rather than just a profit grab. Network charges are again due to increase by €100 and will be reflected in consumer bills under the standing charge. The Government has treated the energy companies with kid gloves and that needs to change.

We will support the Government's gestural credit as consumers need something but what is really needed is a change of Government, a change in approach to our energy market and a commitment to reduced energy costs, as has happened in other European countries.

Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications (Deputy Ossian Smyth)

I thank all Deputies who made contributions on Second Stage of this electricity credits Bill. We will be back later today to discuss this on Committee Stage. I will address various points that have been made. They have been constructive and I will not try to play politics with them. We are trying to deal with energy poverty, which is more important than scoring points off one other. I recognise many constructive points were made and genuine questions asked about why things are the way they are and whether they can be changed.

Deputy Gould referred to people who did not receive the energy credit last year and should have been on the vulnerable customer register. He asked what can be done about them. People may contact TDs saying they are not getting the energy credit and wanting to be told what can be done. A number of people contacted me last year saying they did not qualify for one reason or another. All of them managed to get the credit in the end. That is my experience. Suppliers are required to actively promote the vulnerable customer register and the protection it offers. In the past year, between 2023 and 2024, the number of people on the register has increased by one third. There are now 90,000 people on it. If people who do not get the credit contact their energy supplier and explain the situation, they are highly likely to get it. They also have a right of appeal to the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities. It is most likely they will get the money if they genuinely were occupying the house at the time. I address that also to Deputy Murnane O'Connor, who raised the same question.

In terms of the warmer homes scheme, it is great to see Deputies on all sides understanding the connection between energy poverty and the need to retrofit our homes. Originally there was difficulty in getting take-up of the warmer homes scheme. There was not a lot of demand for retrofit, even in 2019, and there was less than €40 million available for the scheme. Next year we are providing €240 million. Within five years, we have multiplied the budget for the scheme sixfold. We have people waiting months for the scheme and that is because they recognise how valuable it is and want to retrofit. We need to target our retrofit money towards people in energy poverty. That is why the majority of the money goes towards those people. The majority of the money is split between the warmer homes scheme and the scheme for retrofitting council houses.

I remember promoting the retrofit for council houses scheme when I was a county councillor in 2019 and looking at what could be done to increase it. Somebody living in a council house is much more likely to need a retrofit than somebody who owns their own home. In 2019 there was €25 million available; this year there is €100 million available. There is a fourfold increase in the number of homes covered. We had 8,000 social homes constructed last year and are now targeting 10,000. All of those homes are being built to a high standard of insulation. That is many more people on low incomes or dependent on social housing living in warm homes. It is a thing to be recognised and celebrated.

Deputies have asked why we have such high electricity prices in Ireland. There are four main features. First is our lack of natural resources. We spend €1 million per hour on imported fossil fuels, which really costs us. Second, our geographic location as an island means all of our fuels need to be imported through subsea pipes or shipping. We lack natural resources but what was not taught to me in school was that we are the windiest country in Europe and have an incredible wind resource we are finally capitalising on, with 40% of our electricity coming from wind. In the near future, we will be generating much more electricity than we can use and selling it in various ways to the rest of the world. It is a prosperous and hopeful future. Third is the problem of having a small population, which means there is a small market for what we do. We also have a dispersed population. Those factors add to the cost of providing power but, when we become a country producing more electricity than we use and exporting it - we are already negotiating deals on selling electricity abroad - then our prices will be much lower as a result.

I will address comments from Deputy Nash. He asked about switching and rightly pointed out many consumers could save as much from switching electricity provider as they would get from electricity credits. In the first eight months of the year, 240,000 households switched provider. It is happening frequently. There was less of it during the energy crisis but, now that prices are coming down, people are switching provider more frequently. Almost a quarter of a million homes have switched and I would like to see more of that. Deputies should go out to their constituents and tell them to switch provider for a better deal and that they may be able to save as much money as they get from the electricity credits.

Deputy Whitmore and others pointed out that these credits are meant to be one-off, yet are happening frequently. This is the fourth time we have done it. In the first winter in which we provided electricity credits, there was €600 available; the second winter, €450; and this year, €250. We are scaling down the one-off payments for electricity credits because the price of electricity is coming down but it is still greatly elevated and much higher than it was a few years ago. It makes sense that we do not have a cliff-edge situation where people are left without power.

Deputy Whitmore also points out that providing people with solar power is probably a better long-term answer than giving them money directly into their accounts, which is true. The only constraint is the capacity of the number of people available to install. The number of registered installers has doubled in the past year. We had the largest number of solar panels installed in people's homes in a month in August - 3,500 in one month. We are having a solar revolution in Ireland: 1 GW of solar power was installed last year; 1.5 GW this year; 1.5 GW next year. We will reach 8 GW easily by 2030.

We are putting solar panels in every school. The first 1,000 schools have been reached. There are 4,000 schools in Ireland. The pilot project has gone very well, including in Deputy Whitmore's constituency of Wicklow. I look forward in the coming weeks to the next phase, wherein the remaining 3,000 schools will be done, including schools in my constituency of Dún Laoghaire. The reasons solar panels are so popular and doing so well are we removed VAT, not just on the solar panels but on the installation and batteries, we removed the requirement for planning permission, which makes it much easier to put them in, we mandated it be always possible to sell power back to the grid, which was not possible when we came into government, and we provided grants. The grants are being tailed off as the price of solar panels goes down but all those supports are changing the way people get power and giving them more energy independence.

Deputy Collins commented on the need to tackle energy poverty and she is absolutely right. We need to target our payments in that way and that is why we made changes in the budget to provide increases in the qualified child allowance, increases for children in the working family payment and increases in the disability and living alone allowances. All of those payments were targeted because they are linked with energy poverty. That was done in consultation with the ESRI. We asked the ESRI what were the demographics of people who tend to be in energy poverty and need to be compensated, and those are the people we targeted.

We also increased all welfare payments. These changes are permanent rather than once-off. There are a huge range of one-off payments to tackle the fact that energy prices are still high this winter, but there are also a range of payments targeted towards people which are permanent changes. As I said, the majority of our retrofit money is going towards people living on welfare payments or living in council housing.

Deputy Murnane O'Connor asked about people who have not qualified for the electricity credit in the past. If she engages with the supplier and talks to her constituent, she will be able to work it out. If that fails, she should contact me.

As to whether there is anything for tenants and renters, any tenant who has an electricity meter qualifies for this payment. There is a submeter scheme included within this legislation to directly address people who do not have their own electricity meter, for example, people living in bedsits where a meter is shared between several people.

I commend this Bill to the House.

Question put and agreed to.