Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage

Minister of State at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment (Deputy Alan Dillon)

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

I am pleased to address the House on the Second Stage of the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Bill 2025. The Bill will provide the legal mechanism for the payment of €1.5 billion of equity investment in ESB, as committed to by the Government under the national development plan. I will set out the broader context for why Government equity investment is required, before outlining the subject matter of the Bill.

As Deputies will be aware, Ireland’s electricity demand will grow significantly over the coming decade. It is estimated that electricity demand will double by 2035; this is in addition to the 25% growth that has taken place over the past ten years. The International Energy Agency has advised that expanding and modernising electricity grids is essential for a secure, affordable and sustainable electricity system. It has expressed concern that globally, investment in grids is failing to keep pace with spending on generation and electrification. In Ireland, every five years our electricity network companies, ESB Networks and EirGrid, present their five-year forecast investment plans to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, which then approves the revenues allowable for their operating and investment programmes.

These revenues are charges to electricity customers known as network tariffs. This process is known as a price review.

The next price review, PR6, covers the period 2026-2030. The CRU published its draft determination for PR6 in July of this year. As part of the draft determination, an overall network expenditure programme of between €14.1 billion and €18.1 billion is being considered for the period 2026-2030. A final determination will be made by the CRU later this year.

The level of investment being considered under PR6 marks a significant step change. The current price review, PR5, which spans the period 2021 to 2025, will see an investment of at least €7.6 billion. PR6 will more than double that.

This unprecedented package of investment will enable the network companies to support Ireland through this period of change in terms of our use and demand for electricity. It will support key priorities in infrastructure, housing, competitiveness, investment, growth and climate action.

It is a critical period for Ireland in terms of improving security of supply, realising targets and ambition around decarbonisation, expansion of renewables and development of the offshore grid.

The benefits to extending and reinforcing the grid are many, including: improving the resilience of Ireland's electricity system and future-proofing it for generations to come; ensuring that every home and every business have a reliable and secure source of electricity, including the 300,000 new homes we have committed to build by 2030; safeguarding against damage from future weather events and storms; and accelerating the connection of new sources of renewable electricity which contributes to Ireland's transition to greater levels of renewable energy and achievement of our climate goals.

The investment also has huge importance for our economy and will be key to ensuring that the State can increase the critical infrastructure it needs to ensure continued economic growth and employment in our economy, in addition to continued foreign direct investment. The investment will ensure we can support the expected 50% growth in electricity by 2035 and deliver on Ireland's energy needs.

The scale of the increase, however, means that both companies need financial support to deliver the ambitious infrastructure investment programmes. In July of this year, as part of the national development plan, Government agreed the investment of up to €3.5 billion in additional equity to support the PR6 grid investment programmes over 2026-2030 and beyond. This represents the largest single investment ever made in Ireland's electricity network. Some €2 billion will be invested in EirGrid to support the financing of its offshore grid investment plans and €1.5 billion will be invested in ESB to support the financing of its onshore grid investment plan.

In respect of the equity investment mechanism for EirGrid, it is to be noted that this will be agreed and legislated for separately. Investment by EirGrid in offshore grid will begin next year. However, the majority of its investment will not occur until later this decade. The €2 billion Government investment will be allocated over the next five years to support EirGrid access the capital markets and fund its investment.

In terms of the investment in ESB, this Bill has been progressed as matter of priority. The equity investment in ESB is required by the end of this year to ensure payment from the Central Fund of Government approved NDP funding in the 2025 budget and to ensure ESB is sufficiently financed to deliver the ambitious onshore grid investment programme, continuing and expanding its existing investment in our grid. As such, the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, and I sought a pre-legislative scrutiny waiver from the Joint Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy. The waiver was granted following a technical briefing on the Bill being provided to the committee by officials from my Department.

The €1.5 billion equity investment in ESB is to support ESB's ability to finance the overall investment plan for 2026-2030 as part of PR6. This overall investment plan will be financed by debt issuance on the bond market, supported by Government's equity investment and ESB Network's regulated income, as approved by the CRU. It will see delivery of over 500 capital projects across transmission and distribution networks. This includes 181 km of new overhead lines, 319 km of new underground cables, nearly 70 new and upgraded substations across the country and 50,000 pole replacements.

ESB Networks will expand, modernise and reinforce our onshore electricity network infrastructure. Without Government equity investment, ESB would be unable to deliver such an extensive and rapid programme of work in the five years to 2030. The Government equity injection into ESB will support the strength of its balance sheet and ultimately assist in it maintaining excellent credit ratings.

While the investment does not directly lower current customer electricity bills, maintaining strong credit ratings ensures that ESB can borrow at the most competitive interest rates which ultimately lowers the impact of network charges on customer bills. The equity investment by Government sends strong market signals and demonstrates shareholder support at a time when credit rating agencies have noted general market concerns in relation to the high levels of capital expenditure required in electricity infrastructure across Europe. In fact, since announcing the Government equity investment, Standard and Poor's rating agency has announced an improvement in its credit opinion for ESB, upgrading ESB's issuer credit rating to A from A minus. It is important to note that the State will receive an increased stock holding in ESB in return for this investment. The State will continue to receive dividends in proportion to its shareholding.

I will now turn to the Bill's subject matter. I will begin by providing a brief overview of the most important measures the Bill addresses before providing a section by section summary of the Bill. The legislation before the House today has two main objectives. The first is to increase the statutory borrowing limit of ESB from €12 billion to €17 billion to finance the delivery of the PR6 investment programme. This increase is necessary to support the potential €15.2 billion expenditure by ESB Networks in the 2026-2030 PR6 period. The second objective is to provide for the issuance of capital stock by ESB in return for payment up to the value of €1.5 billion. The stock shall be issued to the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation and the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment.

Issuing capital stock which will be fully subscribed to by the State allows importantly for Government to attach the condition that the €1.5 billion investment be used specifically for grid infrastructure projects carried out by ESB Networks. It also ensures that the investment is reflected in the shareholding percentages of the company.

At present, the State's shareholding in ESB stands at 97.4%, whereas the employee share ownership plan, ESOP, holds 2.6%. Employee shareholding ownership came about in 2001 when stock was granted to employees of ESB as part of an overall cost and competitiveness review agreement with the ESB group of unions.

It is important to note that the Bill has been drafted to also enable ESB to issue stock to the ESOP in return for payment, should it choose to also invest in ESB to maintain its current shareholding percentage. The ESOP will have a period of up to 12 months following Government investment to make its investment. Should the ESOP choose not to participate in the equity investment, the State's shareholding will increase.

An independent valuation is currently being carried out by EY for ESB and the shareholders, which will provide a valuation range for ESB.

The valuation determines the price per stock and, therefore, the number of shares the Government will receive from its €1.5 billion investment and its final percentage holding in the company. ESB management has advised my Department that ESB employees are supportive of both the equity investment by Government and the ambitious PR6 investment programme. On a separate but important note, legal consideration has determined that the equity investment does not give rise to any issue of state aid.

I will provide a section by section summary of the Bill, which has five sections. Section 1 provides for the relative definitions of the Bill. Section 2 amends section 4 of the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act 1954 to provide for the increase of the statutory borrowing limit of the ESB from €12 billion to €17 billion.

Section 3 amends section 2 of the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act 2001 by inserting new subsections. The new subsection (5) provides for the issuance of capital stock by the ESB in return for payment up to the value of €1.5 billion; that 90% of such stock shall be issued to the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation; and 10% of such stock shall be issued to the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment.

The new subsection (6) provides for the procedure for the Minister for Finance to make payment to the ESB up to the value of €1.5 billion for the capital stock from the Central Fund; and the new subsection (7) enables the ESB to make a concomitant capital stock issue to the trustees of the employee share ownership plan, should the trustees choose to participate, to maintain their current shareholding percentage.

Section 4 amends section 11 of the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act 2001 to insert a reference to the Minister for Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation in relation to expenses incurred in the administration of the Act. Section 5 contains standard provisions outlining the Short Title of the Bill and its collective citation.

I commend the Bill to the House and I look forward to the debate.

Deputy Pa Daly

I did not get a chance earlier to pay tribute to and congratulate Catherine Connolly. I also pay tribute to Sr. Stan who was a Listowel woman and a Kerry woman. In a week when we saw the outrageous attack on the house in Drogheda and convictions for racially motivated murders, I would love to know what she would have thought about the way the country is going. I pay tribute to her for all of her work with immigrants and the homeless over the years.

Due to decades of underinvestment, bad planning and mismanagement by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments, Ireland's energy system is not fit for purpose. Alongside rip-off costs and a deeply regressive approach to financing, our electricity grid is another example in a long line of Government failures. Due to paralysis, it is plagued by critical infrastructure deficits - we all saw this in the storms of last winter - that not only result in hundreds of millions of euro in wasted renewable energy every year, driving up the cost of energy, but have already stopped people moving into their own homes. The need for urgent action and significant investment in our grid is clear. As the Minister of State said, we need to future-proof it for generations to come, but in doing so it must be fair and just to the generations to come.

While it is essential that we take a determined and ambitious approach, it is equally critical that the Government does not repeat past mistakes. The choices must shape Ireland's energy future in a way that delivers first for ordinary people and not for corporate interests. We all saw that when we had total control and State ownership of our energy markets, we had some of the lowest prices in Europe. Now, we have some of the highest. The Government must ensure there is no return to the snail's pace, stop-start approach of successive Governments. It must be subject to sufficient scrutiny and safeguards so that the public good is prioritised rather than treated as collateral damage. This is why the legislation is so important.

The Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Bill 2025 legislates to allow for the €1.5 billion Exchequer investment in the ESB and furthermore to allow the ESB Group to increase its debt ceiling to €17 billion. It is important and necessary but how the money is spent really matters. The Bill mirrors the same strategic errors of previous Governments in potentially repeating our mistakes. For example, just like the summer economic statement, the revised national development plan and budget 2026, it is not only devoid of detail on the infrastructure the investment will deliver, but there is also no guidance on what projects should be prioritised. That is important and I will get to it. There is no mechanism for Oireachtas oversight, accountability or independent audit. As a result, this important investment of taxpayers' money will be vulnerable to waste and exploitation. It could fail to deliver the critical infrastructure that we need now and into the future. Ramming this Bill through without addressing these shortcomings will not undo the decades of failures. We should be careful not to repeat them.

Let us look at the position we have today. Ireland is massively over-dependent on expensive imported fossil fuels leading to some of the highest energy prices in the EU. I do not think anyone will disagree with that. Ordinary workers and families are being ripped off because the energy bills they are charged here are, on average, €300 to €500 more than other countries. Unsurprisingly, the number of households in energy debt is at a record level having doubled in four short years. There are now 300,000 households that cannot afford to heat their homes or turn the lights on. The crisis will only deepen further following the impact of another round of energy price hikes combined with the cruel decision to withdraw and rip away the energy credits this winter.

The constraints on our grid do not just impact energy affordability. In fact, grid constraints are placing urgently needed housing under threat. We saw that 80 families were prevented from moving into their homes last summer due to the lack of an electricity connection. They remain locked out. Recently, at an Oireachtas committee hearing, the ESB itself warned that limited capacity was placing new housing at risk. Grid constraints also place our vast potential for renewables and energy independence in jeopardy. Ireland saved €1.2 billion last year but we lost nearly a further €500 million in wasted energy. Ireland's crippled grid acts as a barrier to a thriving economy and balanced regional development, not only with electricity connections but wastewater treatment systems as well. All of this means progress is at a standstill when the reality is we need to be going a lot faster.

Sinn Féin recognises the damage that has been caused by the failure to deliver on our grid and the results of that. Sinn Féin would mandate the planning, oversight and accountability that has been missing in the past, including a new responsibility for the ESB to provide a report on not just where the money has been spent, but where it will go in the future. This is the type of much-needed detail that has been missing, which is essential for credibility and certainty. To ensure this Government can no longer continue to treat energy affordability as an afterthought, our amendments will require the impact on consumer prices to be made clear. This will help to tackle the regressive nature of the current funding model because ordinary households should not continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden, while those who are causing energy surges, such as data centres, are left relatively off the hook. These reports should be laid before the Oireachtas initially within six months of the Act passing and then annually. We would also address the mismanagement of grid expansion to date. Successive Governments have rolled out the red carpet for data centres, while other essential infrastructure, such as housing, has been overlooked.

Sinn Féin is not the only one sounding the alarm bell on this. The energy regulator recently highlighted the fact that the ESB Networks substation at Castlebaggot, which was initially intended to support new housing, was handed over to data centres. Even the Government's own officials have issued stark warnings about a business-as-usual approach. In May, the Secretary General of the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment warned the Government that it must make a political choice between new homes and data centres. Similarly, officials in the Department of public expenditure also warned that Ireland's rapid growth in data centres is driving up household bills and gobbling up our energy capacity. All of the renewable energy increase that we will get will be taken by data centres. That is not right.

While increased investment is essential, it must deliver for ordinary workers and families. We hope our amendments will address those concerns ensuring that the ESB's investment is directed towards the right political choices of public good rather than the corporate balance system. This Bill is an opportunity to address the failings in our current system. We believe the amendments are required to ensure we do not fuel them.

I use this opportunity to call on the Government to address the deep unfairness in the cost, and to maintain and upgrade the grid. Data centres consume 22% of Ireland's energy demand, up from 5% in 2015.

EirGrid projects will rise to one third by 2034. A single data centre can use as much electricity as Kilkenny city. However, under the current model a disproportionate burden falls on ordinary households. We have repeatedly urged the Government to restructure network charges and correct this inequity. However, not only have these calls fallen on deaf ears, but the draft decision on price review, PR6, which the Minister of State mentioned in his speech, will only further ingrain this unfairness. Under the CRU's draft price review, households and SMEs will see their network charges increase while large data users like data centres will see reductions of up to 18%. It is not just unfair; it is scandalous. The very companies that have driven up demand have been asked to pay less and ordinary people to pay more. This is a political choice and we believe it is the wrong one.

I emphasise the very real crisis faced by ordinary workers and families when it comes to heating their homes this winter. Over 300,000 households are in debt and there has been another round of crippling energy price hikes but the supports to ordinary people have been ripped away. The Minister of State said that this Bill will not reduce energy bills and will have no influence on that, which is a pity. When the gap between Irish retail prices and wholesale prices is one of the biggest in the world, energy companies have serious questions to answer about price gouging. We have repeatedly provided the Government with measures that would hold the energy companies to account, but they have been ignored. We deserve much better than what the Government is willing to give. We certainly need more than an interim report that only diagnosed some of the problems but delivered no solutions.

The Government should provide €450 in energy credits on electricity bills now and not merely announce that it will publish an energy affordability plan in 2026 with action to follow God knows when. We want investment in the grid to be prioritised and delivered urgently. The stakes are high. This cannot be another blank cheque for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to repeat their failures. The Bill must look at and deliver for housing, for renewable energy, for affordability and for ordinary householders. It cannot be another missed opportunity. We will continue to fight for a fair energy system and one that works for people and not for profit.

Deputy Louis O'Hara

Investment in our electricity grid is essential for Ireland's future. For many years, successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments have failed to invest in adequate grid infrastructure, which has resulted in constrained housing development, major outages during storms and high electricity prices. Without a grid built for the 21st century, we will continue to see housing targets being missed. We will continue to see major outages during storms and rip-off electricity prices will not be addressed. While Sinn Féin supports the intent of the Bill, ramming it through without the necessary safeguards in place will not undo decades of under-resourcing and lack of delivery.

This Bill provides an opportunity to deliver clear oversight into how billions of euro are directed into our electricity grid and yet Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have decided not to engage with our amendments. We have proposed amendments that would ensure that this investment is geared towards the public good rather than serving corporate greed. We will continue to insist that this public investment prioritises transparency, accountability, fairness and affordability.

This investment comes at a time when almost 300,000 households are in arrears on their electricity bills. This week we saw the first analysis from the Government's energy affordability task force. The task force report illustrates the depth of Ireland's energy price crisis and outlined that more than 60% of electricity arrears are now long term. This highlights the lived reality of many households, who face significant difficulties in paying their bills and continue to see energy prices rise. Despite knowing this reality and knowing the positive impact electricity credits have had in previous years, the Government decided not to include energy credits in the recent budget. This is a clear slap in the face to households struggling with the ongoing cost-of-living crisis and the many people who simply cannot pay their bills.

Storms over the past year have shown the fragile nature of our electricity grid infrastructure. In the last year alone, over 300,000 customers lost power after Storm Darragh, 700,000 customers lost power after Storm Éowyn, and just last month nearly 50,000 customers lost power after Storm Amy. Many households lost power in all three of these storms for long periods of time. As we enter the winter storm season this year, there is real fear among many households about the potential for serious outages. With any increase in investment, there needs to be a serious focus on grid resilience.

At this crucial time when we must invest in our grid, Government must ensure that this investment prioritises the public good. This is an opportunity to address issues such as energy affordability, grid availability and grid resilience. To do this, however, there must be appropriate transparency and accountability that public money and public investments are used effectively. There is a clear lack of transparency and accountability in the current form of this Bill. I call on the Government to work with us to ensure that Ireland's grid infrastructure is fit for the future.

Deputy Réada Cronin

The current state of our country's grid and infrastructure more broadly has been a direct result of years of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael neglect. Decades of under-resourcing, bad planning and mismanagement by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments have left us in the mess we are in now, with the crises in housing, education and health among a slew of others. Our grid infrastructure is the energy giver to our economy. It is the lifeblood of our country and it has not been recognised as such by this Government. I welcome that after many long years of neglect, it now recognises its importance and the role it plays in the everyday operation and future development of the State.

However, that does not mean that we should just ram this Bill through without proper safeguards in place, as without necessary scrutiny and amendments the Government is doomed to repeat the mistakes of the past. We need proper transparent planning and full accountability on the delivery of grid infrastructure to ensure we are achieving housing targets and meeting our renewable energy ambition. These are the critical projects that we need immediately to ensure our future. Instead, however, the Government has prioritised the building of data centres, which are devouring our grid capacity and directly impacting our ability to build homes. Data centres now consume over a quarter of our energy demand, according to the CSO. This is why Sinn Féin has demanded that any borrowing by Government to invest in projects must exclude grid infrastructure for connections to data centres.

We have also highlighted the impact that any new investment will have on electricity prices for families. We are currently paying the highest prices in Europe for electricity and very little is being done by this Government to address this. People have now endured decades of inaction and of rolling over for energy companies, which is at the heart of this crisis. Over the last few months, Energia, Flogas, Bord Gáis Energy and SSE Airtricity have all announced double-digit increases in the cost of electricity. We are all hearing it in our constituency offices, as I am sure the Minister of State is in his. Workers and families are being hammered with soaring prices at every turn. Now they are being forced to fork out hundreds of additional euro on their bills. On top of this, the Government has cut the electricity credits that were helping many families to get over the line at Christmas. Thousands of families are now facing into a bleak winter with no respite in sight.

We need to ensure that the ESB will submit annual reports detailing borrowing, project allocation and consumer price implications. If we do not, we will find ourselves in the same situation down the line without grid capacity to build the infrastructure and homes that our country desperately needs. I know we will be discussing this in the Dáil tomorrow night and I hope the Minister of State really looks at some of the amendments that Deputy Daly and I have put forward. I ask him to accept our amendments and to invest today in our future. Tógfaimid le chéile é.

Deputy Conor D. McGuinness

Ireland's electricity grid is not fit for purpose. It is holding back housing delivery across the State. It is stalling renewable energy projects and limiting development in towns, villages and rural areas. It did not just happen by accident and it did not happen overnight. It is the result of years of underinvestment, poor planning and mismanagement by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments. For too long, they have treated the national grid as something to be managed around rather than something to be built up for the future, and now we are paying the price. Builders cannot build homes. Families cannot move in. Businesses and communities cannot grow. The grid simply does not have the capacity. This failure to plan and invest properly has become a brake on the entire economy and especially on our ability as a society to tackle the housing crisis.

The Bill before us provides for €1.5 billion in investment in ESB Networks between 2026 and 2030. While that level of investment is very welcome and very necessary, we wait to see if it turns out to be more than pie in the sky and if the delivery on the ground will be felt, because we have heard it all before.

Government press releases have never been in short supply but they have been like confetti in the past few months. What is missing in all of this is consistent delivery, transparency and fairness.

We do support investment in the grid. We see it as essential but we have concerns about the way the Government is going about this. Ramming a Bill through without proper safeguards, accountability and a clear focus on the public good will only repeat the mistakes of the past. Sinn Féin wants to see a grid that serves people, not corporate interests. We have submitted amendments to guarantee proper parliamentary oversight of ESB borrowing, to ring-fence investment for housing and community needs, to protect consumers from higher prices and to ensure independent auditing of how this public money is spent.

We also need to think about this moment in a broader and historical sense. In the 1950s, the State undertook the rural electrification project, which was a national effort that transformed every parish and townland in Ireland. It was driven by determination, ambition and a simple principle, namely, that no community should be left behind. That same drive is needed again today. If we applied the same vision and determination that our grandparents’ or great-grandparents’ generations once did, we could end the housing crisis that is hollowing out the social fabric of our towns and villages and driving young families from rural communities.

The investment must be about connecting homes before data centres, building fairness into the system and ensuring that no community is locked out because the grid cannot cope. It must be about energy independence, affordable electricity and balanced regional development and growth. The grid we build now will shape the kind of country we become. It must be built for homes and the communities they sustain, and for the future we hope to deliver for our children.

Deputy Ciarán Ahern

I congratulate our former colleague Catherine Connolly on her inspiring win after her presidential campaign. I wish her all the very best in her upcoming term as Uachtarán na hÉireann and our tenth President.

I welcome the opportunity to speak about this Bill. It is one of significant consequence, not only for our energy system but also for our economy, environment, society and country more broadly. It deals with one of the most crucial challenges we face now and in the near future, namely, how we generate, deliver and pay for the energy that powers our homes, schools, hospitals, businesses and industries. How do we keep the lights on, and how do we do so in a fair and sustainable manner that ensures affordability for Irish consumers? Ireland’s energy landscape is being reshaped more dramatically now than at any point in our history, or at least since the ESB was established. We are living through a profound transition, trying to decarbonise our electricity system, at a time when the UN is saying we are on track to miss our target of limiting the rise in the global temperature by 1.5°C. We are trying to decarbonise while electrifying heating and transport and integrating massive new volumes of renewable generation, all while maintaining security of supply and trying to ensure sustainability and affordability for Irish households are paramount. This is no small task, and in that context this Bill has an important role. However, the Bill also has serious gaps in oversight, fairness, environmental protection and, crucially, managing the enormous energy demands from data centres that we need to address. I will return to those topics.

The Bill amends the 1954 Act to give ESB Networks greater borrowing and investment capacity, increasing the statutory borrowing limit from €12 billion to €17 billion. It also authorises €1.5 billion in direct Government equity investment over the next five years, between 2026 and 2030, which is of course very welcome. The Government’s stated aim is to provide the legal and financial framework for upgrading and reinforcing Ireland’s electricity network to support the roll-out of generation, new housing, electric vehicles and climate adaptation works, particularly to ensure resilience against storms and other severe weather events.

We have seen the huge damage that storms have caused in recent years. Quite frankly, we were not prepared for them. They have been hugely disruptive, particularly in the case of Storm Éowyn. As we all know, lives have tragically been lost in recent memory. All this is happening at a time when electricity demand is growing rapidly. By 2030, Ireland’s total demand could rise by as much as 40%, driven by the electrification of heat and transport, population growth and, as I will emphasise later, the astonishing surge in data-centre consumption.

This is not a minor technical amendment; it is a strategic investment Bill that will determine where the State places its financial and infrastructural priorities for the rest of this decade. Therefore, it deserves a high level of scrutiny. I will begin with the positive elements. The Bill is an acknowledgement that our electricity grid is under severe strain. Much of our network was designed for a very different era, namely, one of predictable demand and centralised generation. Today, we have decentralised renewables, fluctuating generation and new kinds of load. Our grid was never built for this complexity. By increasing ESB’s borrowing limit and providing direct equity from the State, this Bill allows essential investments in transmission and distribution. That must include the construction of new substations, the upgrading of lines and the replacement of tens of thousands of poles and cables. It is not necessarily the most glamorous of work but it is critical to keeping our energy system reliable.

I believe we will have separate legislation dealing with storm resilience. After Storm Éowyn, when over 750,000 customers lost power, it became clear that we could not continue to rely on a brittle network, dominated by overhead lines. I know we are not necessarily dealing with that issue today, but provisions for better vegetation management, undergrounding key lines and improving emergency-response capacity will be welcome and are necessary.

In principle, we also support the aim of giving ESB Networks the financial capacity to invest at scale. Grid constraints are now one of the biggest barriers to renewable energy projects. Developers of wind and solar farms across the country are waiting years for connections because of bottlenecks. Without new investment, Ireland will simply not meet its renewable electricity targets for 2030.

The Bill is timely and motivated by legitimate needs and recognises that grid infrastructure is essential to the green transition. However, a Bill that controls billions of euro in public funds should also control how that money is used, who benefits and what kind of system it builds for the future. On that front, the Bill is somewhat incomplete.

First, there is the question of cost. This Bill involves investment at an enormous scale. Billions in new borrowing and billions more for capital works are required, yet nowhere in the Bill or its accompanying documentation does the Government specify what this means for the ordinary household’s electricity bill. The Department’s press statements refer to competitive borrowing rates and long-term benefits but, in plain English, that means the ESB will take on more debt, and that debt will ultimately be serviced through network charges – charges paid by households, schools, businesses, hospitals and so on. Some analysis has suggested that the proposed upgrades could increase bills by approximately €80 per household per year. That may sound modest to some, but for families already having to choose between heating and eating, it is not so modest at all. What are households getting for the extra charge? They are not getting cheaper electricity, at least not in the short term. They are being asked to fund long-term infrastructure that will primarily enable new industrial and commercial growth. At a time of record energy poverty, where over a quarter of households have fallen into arrears in the past two years, that is deeply problematic. A modern electricity system must be just as well as sustainable.

We need to consider establishing more explicit consumer-protection mechanisms that may include, for example, mandating the CRU to publish an annual affordability impact statement outlining the cost effects of this investment and requiring measures to offset any regressive impacts.

More broadly on the issue of consumer costs, we need to seriously consider ways of reining in energy companies and rethinking the deregulation of the energy markets. I have spoken about this previously. There are ways of going about it, such as carve-outs and EU rules, that I have outlined in this House previously. The ESB is in a somewhat unique position given it is a State asset and a former monopoly provider. Under section 21 of the 1927 Electricity Supply Act, which established the ESB, the ESB’s obligation was to charge at “such rates and on such scales that the revenue derived in any year by the Board from such sales and services together with its revenue (if any) in such year from other sources will be sufficient and only sufficient (as nearly as may be) to pay all salaries, working expenses, and other outgoings of the Board properly chargeable to income in that year”. In other words, the original mandate of the ESB was non-commercial, and it remained so for over 70 years. That provision was repealed by section 9 of the 2001 Act, which gave the ESB its commercial mandate. Can anyone really argue that there has been a step-change improvement for customers as a result of this commercialisation?

There are also the issues of accountability and oversight, or the lack thereof, in the Bill. The Bill substantially increases the ESB’s borrowing powers but adds no new reporting requirements. That is not particularly good legislative practice. If a private company raised its debt ceiling by €5 billion, shareholders would demand rigorous scrutiny, yet here the shareholders, so to speak – the people of Ireland – are being asked to sign a cheque and just hope for the best. We need clear lines of accountability that could include annual reporting to the Oireachtas, for example, not necessarily just vague assurances from press releases. We need independent audit mechanisms that track project performance, delivery timelines and cost efficiency. There are over 500 capital projects planned under the investment programme. Which will be prioritised? On what basis? Who decides?

How will we in the Dáil be informed if projects go over budget or fall behind schedule? We have seen in other instances, like the new national children’s hospital, that we only learn of budget overruns and delays because they appear in the headlines. The Bill should, and could, include a new statutory duty on ESB Networks to provide quarterly performances reports to the Minister and the relevant Oireachtas committee outlining progress, expenditure and projected completion dates for all major works above a certain value. That is the level of transparency the public deserves when billions of euro in public money are at stake.

Any investment in our energy network and systems going forward must have decarbonisation and sustainability as its foremost considerations. It is worth pointing out that under the Climate Action and Law Carbon Development Act 2015 and the Climate Action and Law Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021, the ESB, as a public body, is required to perform its functions in a manner consistent with our statutory climate objectives. However, in a position paper back in February, the CRU reported its opinion that the current provisions under the climate action Act do not provide a sufficient legal basis to allow it to explicitly mandate specific emissions reductions and offsetting measures, such as requiring that connection applicants put in place arrangements to ensure that emissions associated with the demand connection are fully abated from the time of that connection or on a set trajectory. That position might be unique to the CRU as a regulator in terms of the compliance obligations it can impose on third parties, or there may be similar problems with the enforceability of the climate change objectives as it applies to other State agencies and bodies. I hope this is something the Minister will check. In any case, given the salience of decarbonising our energy system in our fight against climate disaster, there should be the strongest obligations on the ESB to live up to its requirements under the climate Acts. I tabled an amendment to that effect but unfortunately, it has been ruled out of order. Nonetheless, I will reiterate that the ESB’s paramount consideration must be the performance of its functions in a manner consistent with the climate Act.

As with all matters relating to our energy supply and national grid, perhaps the most urgent issue, and the elephant in the room, is data centres. This Bill completely ignores the single biggest driver of electricity demand growth in Ireland today. It is silent on the issue of data centres despite the fact that their impact is overwhelming the very grid this Bill seeks to reinforce. That is pretty unbelievable. Last year, data centres accounted for 22% of Ireland’s entire electricity supply. EirGird projections suggest that, without intervention, this figure could rise to 30% by 2030. To put that into perspective, one sector, serving a few dozen multinational corporations, could soon consume nearly one third of our national electricity output. This is not demand that can easily be curtailed. Data centres operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The consumption is constant and inflexible. It does not dip when the wind stops blowing or shift when the grid is strained. The result is immense pressure on network infrastructure, particularly in the east of the country where these facilities are concentrated. Dublin, already one of the most data centre-dense cities in Europe, is approaching the limits of its transmission capacity. That congestion means a couple of things. First, renewable projects elsewhere struggle to connect because capacity is consumed by non-flexible industrial demand. Second, ordinary consumers face higher costs as new infrastructure is built primarily to serve that demand.

When data centres disconnect from the grid and use their own back-up generation, this back-up is almost always fossil fuel-powered. It is simply not a sustainable solution. Let us be honest: the bulk of this €1.5 billion investment will go towards meeting the needs of large energy users, not households. Yet, the costs are socialised across all consumers. That is not sustainable or fair. If we are serious about a just energy transition, we cannot ignore the imbalance created by this sector. We have to ensure that large-scale users contribute proportionality to the infrastructure costs they generate. The de facto moratorium on new data centre connections in the Dublin region, introduced in 2021, was a necessary stopgap and should be introduced nationally. We in the Labour Party have consistently called for a moratorium on all new data centres but clearly the Government intends on ploughing ahead and green lighting more and more of them.

That being the case, new or expanding data centres should be able to demonstrate access to renewable, self-generated power sufficient to meet their operational load. I have drafted a Bill, which I intend to introduce shortly, to give effect to such a provision. We should also be looking at requirements for all large energy users to participate in demand response programmes, installing on-site storage or flexibility technologies to ease strain on the grid. In addition, we need to explore the introduction of a large-user capacity levy, earmarked specifically to offset household and small business network costs. In our alternative budget, the Labour Party proposed a levy of €20 per MWh on data centres, which would raise over €140 million, and a reform of the PSO to ensure they contribute equitably. If they use disproportionately more energy, they should pay proportionally more. That is basic fairness.

Furthermore, we should be looking at the wider planning framework. I am yet to be convinced that the national energy demand strategy is robust enough in setting out clear criteria for where and how high-energy use facilities can connect. We are essentially building infrastructure blindly without any demand side governance. If we continue on the current path, yes, we might end up with a grid that is stronger but it will be one that is more unequal, carbon intensive and dependent on the very industries that make decarbonisation harder.

I wish to touch on the issue of delivery. The targets are laudable, such as 50,000 pole replacements, 319 km of new underground cables and 70 new or upgraded substations. Targets alone do not deliver progress, however, as we are all too aware. We know from recent experience that large infrastructure programmes often face cost overruns, planning delays and procurement challenges. Global supply chains remain fragile and skilled electrical engineers are in short supply across Europe. If the ESB cannot deliver these works on time and within budget, the benefits to consumers and renewables developers will be delayed and the costs will inevitably rise. It would be prudent if annual delivery plans were required and perhaps an independent mid-term review in, say, 2028 to assess whether the investment programme is meeting its objectives and to allow for adjustments if it is not.

Beyond delivery, we need to ensure we are building the right kind of grid. The 21st century grid must be smarter, not merely bigger. It must be capable of real time balancing, integrating distributed renewable generation and enabling households and communities to produce and store their own electricity. If this Bill becomes only a programme of steel and concrete, with more poles, lines and substations without a parallel investment in smart technology, we will have built yesterday’s grid for tomorrow’s challenges.

There is one other matter I wish to raise. This is more of a procedural matter rather than one relating to the substance of the Bill. It is an insight into how I spent my Sunday night. It is about the lack of a consolidated version of this legislation. The Law Reform Commission, as the Ministers of State might know, does great work in consolidating a lot of our laws, but its resources are limited and it does not provide a consolidated version of the electricity supply Acts. Ideally, all of our legislation would be published in a consolidated format rather than leaving it up to individuals to piece together amendments that may have be enacted separately, sometimes over decades, to understand the current state of the law. The Government should publish consolidated laws for everyone’s benefit, as is done in the UK. It is extremely difficult, even for someone like me who is legally trained, to decipher which parts of an amended Act are being changed for the purposes of reviewing and analysing this legislation. Every Department when proposing amendments to existing legislation should at least provide legislators with that Department’s unofficial consolidated versions of Acts so that we can fully and fairly scrutinise them.

I will provide one small example. The explanatory memorandum states this Bill will amend section 4(4) of the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act 1954, which sets the ESB’s borrowing limit. We are told that this limit is being changed from €12 billion to €17 billion. All of this fine, but the limit set under section 4 in 1954 was £25 million. This was amended by a 1982 amendment Act to a limit of £1.6 billion, but how did it get to the limit of €12 billion? Where do I see that so I know that it is changing? It turns out that the limit in the 1954 Act was amended again and increased to €12 billion under section 22 of the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development Act (Amendment) 2021. All I am saying is that, as legislators, we should be able to focus our efforts on looking exactly at the substance of changes to our laws, but we cannot be sure exactly what our existing laws are saying in the first place because they are made up of this mishmash of amendments that have been passed over 70 years. This needs to be made clearer for us as legislators. Aside from us, ordinary citizens should be entitled to see easily and in an accessible and transparent manner what our laws actually are and what their right and entitlements are. This in so many respects is an access to justice matter. There is a need for reform in how we publish our laws. This is something I will raise with the Minister for justice and pursue separately.

This Bill has merit. It recognises real challenges and it provides a framework for investment that Ireland desperately needs, but legislation of this magnitude should be judged not only be what it enables, but what it neglects.

We need to ensure balance between public and private interest, between environmental protection and infrastructure speed, between affordability and ambition and between power for profit and power for people. This Bill will shape our grid for decades to come, so let us not build a grid that serves Silicon Valley better than the homes of counties Dublin, Clare or Donegal.

We must build a system that delivers clean, reliable and affordable electricity for every household, every business and every community in Ireland. That means stronger oversight, explicit and robust consumer protection and respect for the environment. That also means a clear, enforceable plan for managing industrial electricity demand, particularly from data centres. If we make these changes, this Bill can become a cornerstone of a just, resilient and sustainable energy future. If we do not, we risk locking ourselves into a model that is unfair, unsustainable and politically untenable.

Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Deputy Michael Healy-Rae)

I am thankful for the opportunity to provide an update to the Chamber on the progress being made with responding to the significant damage caused by last winter's storms, particularly in forestry. The volume of timber normally felled over a 2.5-year period was blown down overnight during Storm Éowyn. The latest damage assessment maps show that 27,000 ha of forests were windblown, with 11,400 ha impacted in private forestry. This equates to approximately over 40 million trees blown down by that storm. Counties Leitrim, Roscommon and Cavan were worst affected, where 48% of the windblow occurred. Considerable damage was also caused to electricity lines and other infrastructure by the storms. Immediately after the storm, I established a windblow task force, which has since finalised an action plan to guide our response, identify bottlenecks and rectify them. I thank the people from the different sectors and the officials from my own Department who really worked diligently with regard to putting all of this in place and getting things going. There was an awful volume of work to be done.

Considerable damage was also caused to electricity lines and other infrastructure by the storms. To further speed up the process, we have allowed the use of both thinning and clear-fell licences in removing storm-damaged trees. Our data now shows that 77% of windblown trees already have a felling licence issued by my Department. My Department also continues to progress the introduction of a reconstitution scheme for storm-affected forest owners. As I have said previously, I will ensure that forest owners that carry out clearance or replanting now will not be disadvantaged when the scheme will be introduced. That is very important for those forest owners to know.

I acknowledge the contribution Coillte has made to helping home and farm owners who are impacted by storms to have their power restored. Coillte's staff and contractors were immediately available. They worked tirelessly and in hazardous conditions to clear trees and open road access immediately after the event. Coillte has also laid the satellite mapping of the storm damage and I have worked with it in close co-operation and my Department to establish the impact across all counties that were affected. Since then, Coillte has moved on to prioritising the salvaging of the storm damage material. This includes the corridors along ESB lines where possible. This includes a detailed assessment of areas of potential risk through drone images. Coillte is working closely with the ESB. I have been informed that the power lines that are a priority for adjacent to tree felling works for energy reasons. Based on this information, Coillte has developed a programme of works to incorporate these prioritised power line clearance works into its own harvesting programme. Work is well under way in that regard. Both Coillte and the private forestry industry have undertaken huge efforts to deal with the damage. Currently, more than 90% of the harvesting capacity in this country is working in windblown areas. Again, that is very important. A total of 90% of the machinery involved in harvesting is working on windblow sites. It is important to emphasise that the clearance of windblow areas is a complex, slow, difficult and dangerous process.

As the Minister of State with responsibility for farm safety and for safety in general in those type of hazardous conditions, I am placing a big significance on the importance of the work, the protection of our power lines, keeping energy going to people's homes and the protection of the people doing that hazardous work. That is also very important. That is a top priority for all of us. Both my Department and Coillte are continuing to engage with the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment and the ESB on the forestry corridor working groups. I thank the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien very much for his work. As part of this co-operation, my Department has contributed to the winter resilience plan 2025, which has been finalised by ESB Networks earlier this year. My Department has also inputted extensively to the framework for the draft legislation being discussed. It is my intention to ensure that the ESB will be fully empowered to better manage this issue in the future. To be clear, we have in place long-standing forest corridor requirements in legislation to protect the electricity network where it interacts with forestry land. In fact, the ESB and its representatives are empowered under current legislation to lop or cut any tree, scrub or hedges which obstructs or interferes with electric wires. Such works are a matter between the ESB and anyone acting on its behalf and the landowner in question and do not require a felling licence from my Department.

The proposed Bill, however, aims to enhance the resilience of the electricity grid and therefore provides additional, proactive measures that allow for the establishment and maintenance of designated forestry corridors within existing forestry and the maintenance of clear land around existing infrastructure, which, of course, is very important. When debating the Bill, I would like to ensure that the new legislation provides the protection needed for the public, but it also has to be proportionate for the forest owners in the State who will also be affected. I thank everybody for their work on this. I acknowledge the work of the Minister and of all the other people. The people who are a lot more important in this debate are not the people in this House in suits, with all due respect; it is the people who had to go out at night, working to clear the lines and trying to restore power in bad and dangerous conditions. They are the people who we all want to thank and we want to say how grateful we are for them. There is no worse place a person could be than inside a forest with trees criss-crossed every way and dangerous power lines knocked and understanding and knowing how important it is to get the power going to those homes and people. We had them throughout County Kerry. We had them throughout the country and in the counties I have referenced. People had no power or heat. It was horrendous for everybody.

I sincerely thank the workers and the people who strive so hard and put so much effort into trying to clear the lines. That job of work was done. It is now up to all of us from a political point of view to make sure the strengthening legislation is there to help this work to be carried on in the future and to protect the property rights of the people who will be affected. I thank everybody. This is not an us-and-them situation; this is all of the people inside of this House. All we want is safety, power going to homes, heat going to homes, the continuity of supply and being fair to the people who own the land. That is all we are trying to achieve.

Deputy Pádraig Mac Lochlainn

There is a major wind farm just above my hometown in Buncrana. Recently, I drove up the hill and observed that half of the turbines were actually turned off. When I made inquiries as to why that was the case, apparently the electricity infrastructure just is not there to take the power from them. It is absolutely extraordinary. These wind turbines are there a very long time. I just have to ask: what the hell is going on? Apparently, a significant percentage of the wind turbines that are dotted all across County Donegal do not actually feed into the grid. This is just crazy. Then there is a direct link between this failure to plan properly in terms of infrastructure and in terms of what people pay. People are being crippled here. The Government knows this. Homeowners and small businesses are being absolutely crippled with electricity costs. We know that wind energy plays a critical role in reducing those costs.

It is important the amendments to this legislation put forward by Sinn Féin are taken on board by the Government. We need full accountability here. We need a direct link between investment from the State into the ESB infrastructure and reduced costs for homeowners. People are being fleeced. We used to have the cheapest electricity in Europe. That was when we owned our own infrastructure and the company that charged the bills. We handed it over and wrecked the model we had. What is worse is that the wind turbines we have put all across the country are not feeding into the grid. We are not getting the full benefit of them to reduce costs. This investment has to be real, with real accountability and a real plan.

Deputy Louise O'Reilly

I stress that the waiving of pre-legislative scrutiny, PLS, is never a good idea. I do not know what the Government has against transparency and accountability. I welcome the fact we opposed the waiving of PLS. I also welcome the fact the Government is finally acknowledging the need to invest in our grid infrastructure. It is long past time. This Bill provides for investment in energy infrastructure but it does not provide details about how this will happen. Who will be responsible for managing and ensuring value for money? The Minister of State will, I am sure, forgive us if we look at the record of the Government, its wasteful habits and capacity to spend taxpayers' money without a single care, or indeed without any attempt to inject value for money.

I will talk about families in my constituency who have experienced huge delays, running to years, in moving into their homes in Páirc Na Blathanna because of the failure by the Government to invest in energy infrastructure. They were forced to couch surf. They were overholding. They put their lives on hold. They simply could not make that move into homes that were built and ready for them to move into. They will ask what is in this legislation for them. How will this improve their lives? The simple fact is that because the Government has waived PLS, we are not going to have a chance to discuss it.

I hope the Minister of State will take on board not just the intention but the substance of the amendments tabled by my party colleague, Deputy Pa Daly. We also note that the energy regulator has told us that the substation at Castlebaggot, which was initially due to support new housing, has been handed over to data centres. We also note that the ESB has concerns about sustainability in north Dublin and the area I represent. That the Government has not allowed for proper discussion under PLS for this Bill means I have no answers for my constituents. They simply look at the Government's record with their heads in their hands.

Deputy Jennifer Whitmore

I echo the comments about PLS. Unfortunately, during the previous term the Minister for energy got into a really bad habit of rushing Bills through the committee without proper scrutiny and it looks like the Minister of State is taking up that mantle and doing similarly. As a principle, all Bills should go through PLS unless there is an urgent or emergency reason not to. I do not think that is the case in this instance and it certainly was not the case previously. I ask the Government to stop using that mechanism. The Government members within the committee will always have the majority vote so I ask the Government to please allow Bills to go through the proper process. It will mean a much more robust debate and better legislation at the end of the day. It is not wasted time but very much valuable time. I ask the Government to do that.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill. It is not just a technical debate about infrastructure. It is a discussion about the changing economic climate in Ireland, the changing environmental framework we are dealing with and how we prepare for those different changes as we go into the next decade. It is also a question of fairness and who we are building out our energy systems for. That needs to be a large part of the discussion here today.

It is nearly a year now since January 2025 when Storm Éowyn tore through Ireland, leaving 768,000 homes, farms and businesses without power. It was the worst storm that ESB Networks and the country have ever faced. Poles snapped, lines were down and entire communities were cut off from heat, light and communication for weeks on end. In the aftermath, emergency centres were set up, international crews were flown in and thousands of families were left in the cold. However, it was not a freak event. The unfortunate reality is that we-----

Deputy Alan Dillon

It was the worst in history.

Deputy Jennifer Whitmore

We will potentially see more of those storms. That is the reality we face because of climate change. We will see more frequent and more severe storms. We cannot look at what happened during Storm Éowyn and consider it as a very difficult period in time. It is something that we need to learn an awful lot of lessons from and we need to see it as a wake-up call. The reality is that our grid is not resilient enough and our infrastructure is not ready. Indeed, our emergency services were stretched to their limits in their response. I welcome the Bill because I believe it can play a part in getting us onto a proper footing to deal with similar instances. I hope we do not have to deal with too many but we need to be ready and prepared to deal with them if they do happen.

I welcome the Bill and the €1.5 billion equity investment for ESB Networks. I also welcome the fact the increase to the ESB's borrowing limit will unlock over 500 capital projects, including 181 km of new overhead lines, 319 km of underground cables, 70 new and upgraded substations and 50,000 pole replacements. Reading out those figures, you realise that the scale of the job ahead of ESB Networks and the teams, the workers on the ground to whom the Minister of State referred, is enormous. It is important that we invest in the ESB to help us achieve that modern and resilient electricity system. We saw an awful lot of gaps in the legislation and the different frameworks when we saw what Storm Éowyn did, particularly to forestry corridors. It is important that we manage the vegetation around the grid to stop these kinds of outages.

This is all positive. This is a positive step from the Government. However, there are certain aspects that we need to consider. One is that while we are putting in this investment, we must consider the costs and how people are going to pay for that grid infrastructure. Care needs to be taken to ensure we are not disproportionately impacting people who cannot afford any higher costs on their bills. It is important that we also ensure there is prioritisation of those resources, particularly for residents, people who are vulnerable and, indeed, small businesses. What we are seeing at the moment is, unfortunately, investment in a grid that will ultimately benefit large corporations through the supporting of the whole data centre industry. I will come to that shortly. We need to make sure that if the lights go out, we can assist the people who are most vulnerable and most at risk. We must ensure that if the lights go out, we can make those homes resilient and not focus our efforts on those corporations.

The Minister of State talked about PR6. As I have raised at the committee, PR6 will only invest in the grid to support the current level of data centre applications. It is not for any future data centres. According to the affordability task force, we will see an increase of 45% in electricity demand over the next decade. There is a real worry that even with this level of investment and the investment being given under PR6, if we continue to allow increases in the electricity used by data centres and this proliferation of data centres, the grid will still not be sufficient. It is only going to shore up the grid and secure the issues for the current level of data centres and not any future ones. That is a risk and I ask the Government to look at it.

When I became a TD six years ago, one of the first motions I brought forward was on data centres and seeking a moratorium on them. It was not that the Social Democrats were against data centres per se - there was not a blanket objection in principle to data centres - but we wanted to see strategic management of data centres because it was clear, even back then, that this was not happening. We were seeing projections that were forecasting that by 2030, 30% of our electricity demand would be coming from the data centre industry. When we look at what actually happens in Europe, where the relevant figure is 2% to 3%, we see that Ireland is being disproportionately impacted by the demand from data centres on our electricity grid.

Over the past few years, we had instances where there were risks of brownouts and blackouts because the grid was not sufficient and was not able to deal with the demand, primarily from data centres. What did we have to do? The Government had to rush out and purchase generators that cost hundreds of millions of euro to ensure the data centres had access to a grid. It is really important that when decisions are being made about data centres, we know how many we can afford in this country from a climate perspective, from an energy security perspective and from an energy pricing perspective. The more pressure and the more demand that is put on a commodity such as electricity, the higher the price goes. Over the past few years, we have seen so many prices skyrocketing. Ordinary individuals are unable to keep on top of that. I believe a large part of that is down to the demand that is being placed on the trading and use of electricity. I ask the Minister of State to look into that and not ignore it.

We are not saying there should be absolutely no data centres; we are saying there is a need to put in good data centres that are efficient, can work in a complex electrical environment, can actually act as storage and can perform a function as part of that whole system. Do not just roll out planning permissions or approvals for them or roll out the grid because it is very costly to do that.

I also want to make the point that when the Government invests in the grid, it puts additional costs on consumers. There is an economic reality there. I was interested to see in the report by the affordability task force that it stated that, essentially, the network charges from the CRU's recent decision will put an increase of approximately €29 per year onto a typical customer bill. I want to raise this issue with the Minister of State because I am quite concerned about it. I raised it with the CRU over a month ago. It must be six weeks since I raised it with the CRU at a committee meeting, but it appears that nothing has been done. The Government needs to ensure that when it is making investments in the grid and when additional charges go onto consumer bills, there is transparency about these charges and the energy companies do not use the Government's investment in the grid to hike up prices, because that is exactly what we have seen.

In September 2025, Energia announced an increase in its energy prices. I think it was going to add an extra €200 or so onto people's bills. Energia stated that these price changes are "now unavoidable" due to "ongoing, substantial increases in electricity, system operator and network charges" and "that these costs are required to recover the costs of ensuring security of supply, addressing network constraints and investing in the electricity grid." That is incorrect. That is misinformation that is being put out to hundreds of thousands of Energia customers. I raised this with the CRU representatives at a meeting of the energy committee six weeks ago and asked them to look into it, but that press release is still on the Energia website. It has not been amended at all to reflect the reality that the €200 it is putting the bills up by every year is not down to grid improvements, security of supply issues or network charges. Energia is putting the price up because it is gouging. It will blame the Government, and investment in the grid, for doing this. I ask the Minister of State to raise this matter. I have serious concerns that the CRU has not addressed that issue after six weeks. It is the CRU's job is to protect customers and to ensure there is transparency in the information provided to it, but it is not doing its job properly.

Another area I want to raise in regard to the CRU is arrears. A report from the affordability task force yesterday mentioned that in June, 13% of electricity customers and 27% of gas customers were in arrears. It is crazy that the CRU has not published the most recent data and that we are still working from the June figures. When CRU representatives came to the committee meeting six weeks ago, I asked them what the latest figures for arrears were, but they could not tell me. They said they would publish them shortly and still have not done so. That information should have been available in the context of last month's budget. When the Minister of State is making policy decisions, he needs to know how many people are in arrears and how many the numbers are going up by each month. The Minister of State needs to have that information to hand because otherwise he will not be able to identify the scale of the problem. Again, the CRU is responsible for this. I have sent two or three emails to the CRU during the past six weeks asking for that information but it is not being provided. Obviously, the CRU is not listening to me. I ask the Minister of State to raise this issue with it because it is the body that is meant to be protecting customers.

There is a lot here. We will have an opportunity to discuss this important legislation over the coming days. There needs to be a short-term focus on how we can protect people this winter if there are more storms, how we can get ready and how households will be resilient not just to price increases but also to any disturbances because of storms coming in. It is really important but we will have further opportunities to debate that. I ask the Minister of State to talk specifically to the CRU about the points I have raised because I think they are important.

Deputy Joe Neville

I welcome Freddie Wasson from Leixlip, a transition year student who is working with me this week. He lost the county final last week and is very disappointed. I hope that working here in the Dáil will improve his mood before he heads back to school next week.

I welcome what we are discussing and I welcome this Bill. As a TD and someone who was elected as a councillor numerous times, I have always called for investment in infrastructure, especially, with my local hat on, in the Leixlip and Celbridge areas where we have had electricity outages. Since I was elected as a TD, we have seen outages in Kildare and nationally as a result of the storms of last winter.

Ultimately, anything that brings extra investment in our electrical system, such as the €1.5 billion we are talking about today and the ability to seek the additional loans required, has to be welcomed. I thank the Minister and his team for their foresight and belief in this. I thank the Minister for Finance for putting this forward on budget day ahead of time, considering the demands.

I am a member of the infrastructure committee, which will meet tomorrow with the housing bodies and the large developers in Kildare, Ballymore and Glenveagh. Their representatives will come to the committee meeting. I know one of the key issues they will be talking about will be Uisce Éireann and the challenges they have with water, but the electricity supply will be a key focus as well.

I have met many developers, no more than other Deputies, and I understand the sorts of issues they face. When houses have been built across north Kildare and elsewhere, we have not been quick enough to get the electricity supply in. That is one of the issues. I hope this legislation will go towards putting in the infrastructure in time to ensure we do not have those delays. My only fear is this: will €1.5 billion be enough to continue with that? I am sure there will be a multi-year approach whereby we will continue to have investment in our electricity system.

Obviously, from a national perspective one of the key items we are looking at changing is how we do our electricity and how we work at electricity. Renewable integration is key. We are talking about offshore electricity, solar electricity and getting everybody on board in that regard. This is key but to do that we need to update our grid. With this extra money coming into the system, we will be able to invest to ensure we can avail of solar power units.

I do not wish to go off topic - perhaps it is in keeping with the topic - when I mention that Freddie and I were lucky enough to be in the new Lidl net-zero shop in Maynooth. We got a tour and we saw how a new development in a new shop with solar panels will be able to be cost-neutral from an energy perspective. I think we have to go that way. As our previous speaker outlined, we have continuing new demands on our system. This is where we have to talk about supporting our economic and digital growth. We all know that data centres will be required. The Social Democrats were talking against data centres and about moratoriums, potentially, being put on them. At the same time, we cannot ignore the reality of the future demand that may be coming with the technological changes we have seen in recent years and continue to see, especially in the new realm of AI investment across the world. We can talk about moratoriums but we need to ensure Ireland is not left behind. This legislation will go towards that. We need to ensure we have an electricity system that is able to keep up with the best of other countries. Countries like Denmark and England have faced many of these challenges. It has been less of an issue in France, which has the nuclear energy option that many other countries do not have and we do not have. Ireland is in a different space but we need to ensure that with this investment we are able to open the opportunities where possible and where we are best placed to do so, and that includes data centres.

As I said at the outset, we need to be conscious of one-off events when we reflect on whether our system will continue to be fit for service in the future. We have climate change and increased storms. There are weather systems that come across, and are probably coming across in the next couple of months. The Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, knows this better than anyone given that his own area was probably one of the hardest hit by the storm earlier this year, and indeed by the outages that were in his area. I know the Minister of State will be looking for this sort of investment to ensure we are in a more robust and better place in order that we can get things back on track sooner, if possible, and in order that networks would not be out any longer than necessary. We can talk about the upfront €1.5 billion investment but by giving the ESB more flexibility to finance its own investments, we can ensure we have the best network possible over the coming years.

This Bill is about building a secure future and a secure electricity system. Once again, I welcome the Government's initiative on this.

Deputy Paul McAuliffe

I welcome the Bill before the House. While it includes technical measures to increase the actual borrowing limit for the ESB and to provide for additional share capital to be issued, in essence it is about making an additional investment in our electricity supply. This is incredibly important in an Ireland that is growing and will have additional demands in the future. Even in today's market, there are communities in my district that are experiencing difficulties because of issues with electricity supply capacity, with appliances being damaged in their homes and so on. I welcome the additional investment.

I also welcome the investment in the provision of interconnectors, particularly the North-South Interconnector. The investments here will be an important tool in order to deliver that. The interconnectors are really key because while they increase Ireland's electricity security, they also give us an opportunity to export renewable energy, an area where I believe we are going to be world leaders. We have already made great strides. The passing of the Maritime Area Planning Act 2021, which the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, and I soldiered on at the committee, is having an impact but we need to do more and the Government needs to do more.

The provision of renewable energy is something that we could see being implemented very quickly now. One of the issues with the renewable energy system, particularly wind energy, relates to surplus wind energy that happens at night. When energy is not able to be used by the grid, it is effectively earthed into the ground. This is the reason I brought forward the Energy Poverty Reduction (Use of Surplus Renewable Energy) Bill 2025. The idea is that we come up with a national strategy for that surplus energy. Energy that is otherwise being wasted or earthed into the ground every evening could be a digital or virtual district heating system right across the country. It could be heating the hot water tanks of many people across the country. It could be charging electric car batteries and so on. Having a national strategy for surplus wind energy is really key. I urge the Government to consider my Bill and to put every effort into bringing forward a strategy in this respect. I know the Ministers are supportive of it and I look forward to progress on this. The idea is that we can use surplus wind energy to tackle fuel poverty.

The work we have done includes the fuel supplement scheme, which has been massively expanded. If I am right, I think I heard a Minister say this morning that 26% of homes now are included under the fuel supplement scheme. That happened because we significantly expanded eligibility for people over the age of 70. These are people who worked hard all their lives, who bought their home and who own their home. They are now eligible for the fuel supplement. This also makes them eligible for the better energy warmer homes scheme, which allows them to get a full wraparound insulation system. This has a massive impact on their energy bills. There is a lot of connectivity between the different schemes we currently have. The measures in this Bill add to the overall investment.

With regard to the budget, there were targeted measures and there were general measures, as there have been in past budgets. The Opposition criticised us for not introducing more targeted measures in previous budgets but they seem to have forgotten that this time around when we made more targeted decisions. The 9% VAT rate was really key in keeping energy prices low. If that not had been done, people right across the country would have been paying significantly more for their ESB bills. That is really important but it does nothing to address the issue around energy prices. Energy prices in Ireland are too high. There are lots of reasons for that, some of them structural and some of them to do with our connectivity to the rest of Europe and so on. We have to make sure the energy companies know that their feet are being held to the fire on the issue of price.

I agree with other speakers about the CRU. It needs to do more to make sure consumers are getting the lowest possible price, given the mandate of the CRU. It is incredibly important. When people in our constituency offices say they are afraid to turn their heating on because they are not sure what the impact will be, or when people on a pay-as-you-go scheme cannot shop around to avail of different providers, we know how important the issue of energy prices is. While I welcome the Government's measures on the 9% VAT rate, which is really important, and on the fuel poverty schemes, I believe we need to do more on energy prices. I welcome the Bill.

Deputy Natasha Newsome Drennan

I support the intent of this Bill but it cannot be pushed through without the necessary safeguards. People in counties Kilkenny and Carlow are paying a heavy price for the consecutive failures of the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, and his colleagues to invest in our energy infrastructure. It is an issue my constituents continually contact me about. There is a question I would love to see answered. Is your top priority for energy residential housing or is it data centres? Which of these is at the top of the Minister's priorities? We all know it cannot be both. When I see the waves the Government has made to support the building of more and more data centres, putting immense pressure on our national grid, it makes me wonder.

I find it staggering that a single data centre can use as much energy as the whole of Kilkenny city. There are now nearly 100 data centres across the State. The Government's own experts have warned it about the risk this poses to building the homes we desperately need. We are now seeing that families across Ireland cannot move into new homes because they cannot get connected. I find it astounding that in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, data centres are set to see their energy bills drop by 18%, while families and workers across Ireland are facing the most expensive winter they have ever seen for energy bills.

I accept that many data centres are providing vital data storage, but a line must be drawn. Data centres storing unnecessary data about what type of advertisements to hit us with do not contribute positively to our society. It is the people of Ireland, not data centres, who contribute positively to our society. It is the people of Ireland, not data centres, who need to see their energy bills drop. The public cannot be expected to foot the bill for the data centres. It is simply not right and it is deeply unfair.

Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí

I welcome the Bill. The Minister of State will be familiar with the impact of Storm Éowyn and how it hit the west of Ireland in particular. Any investment in ESB Networks that helps to build resilience for the future is to be welcomed. I am fully supportive of it. Over the coming years, the ESB's investment plan will see the delivery of more than 500 capital projects - a huge number - including 181 km of new overhead lines, underground cabling, upgraded substations, new substations and 50,000 new poles. It is really important that this investment is made. We do not want to be dealing with another Storm Éowyn in the future without having the necessary resilience in the network.

As the PR6 strategy paper outlines, by 2030 millions of devices, including heat pumps, EVs, battery-storage renewables and smart meters will all be coming onto the electricity distribution grid network, in line with the climate action plan. There is an immense opportunity here but it requires investment. The ESB and EirGrid will need to work together to ensure the network can be built, can accommodate all these devices and can manage renewable power, with all its spikes, and all the different complex flows of electricity that arise across the system.

Communities are looking for certainty in the years ahead and we must provide that certainty in whatever way we can. Keeping the electricity grid and infrastructure up to date and fit for modern society is one way in which the Government can and will provide that certainty, and I support it in so doing. This Bill is a practical measure and an investment measure. It will afford progress for people across the length and breadth of the country and give strength to our economy. It will work with us to further our climate ambitions, in which the climate committee is very interested, and to prepare our country for the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.

Deputy Claire Kerrane

This Bill will allow the ESB to access more funding and do more in terms of investment in improving infrastructure. As the majority shareholder in the ESB, there is a real onus on the Government to ensure people feel the benefit of that extra funding and investment. This is especially important for areas like mine across Roscommon and Galway that were hammered by Storm Éowyn earlier this year.

Proceeding with projects and more investment is key, of course, but security of supply is absolutely critical. In January, Storm Éowyn left some people without power for more than a fortnight and, in some cases, without heating as well. In my area, people went 17 or 18 days without power. It was a horrendous experience for families. All those people who lost power had to pay their ESB bill like it never happened. That is unacceptable and it must be addressed.

Forestry was a significant issue across Roscommon and Galway, with trees collapsed on lines and poles. Huge damage was done. Last month, once again, people were left without power for days, and some up to a week, following Storm Amy. The men and women working locally in the ESB and in tree service companies were back in some of the same forestry once again. It is absolutely unacceptable that forestry continues to be such an issue in terms of the ESB and power supply. Where there are issues with access, they must be dealt with quickly.

I hope the ESB will also use this investment to look at its vulnerable customers register, which needs work. We must look at what more can be done for people, especially where they are reliant on medical devices to live.

Deputy Ruairí Ó Murchú

I have just come from a meeting of the foreign affairs committee where we engaged with American Chamber of Commerce Ireland. We talked about geopolitical circumstances and the situation in Gaza. It is fair to say there was disagreement on the occupied territories Bill. I believe we, like many other states, are on the right side of that argument. We also spoke about the current uncertainty and all the other issues caused by the US Administration, the Trump tariffs and the question of where negotiations will go. However, the witnesses said the issues their members are dealing with at this time relate to the infrastructural deficits we still see. It is not a major shock that housing is a particular issue. We all understand the societal impact of that but, as well as the huge impact on families and individuals, we also know there is a huge impact on businesses and on our future growth.

As we discuss almost every week in this House, without seeing any major plan in terms of delivery, a particular issue is that we have an energy grid that is not fit for purpose and has not received the resourcing required to ensure delivery of improvements. We all know this is happening in the same context as the issues in relation to our water infrastructure, which is not where it needs to be. Unfortunately, not only are we failing in regard to long-term delivery but we are doing so during a cost-of-living crisis in which we are failing miserably to look after those who have to pay, especially those at the lowest end. I ask that we proceed with a view to delivering a fit-for-purpose grid while also ensuring we look after those people who live and work in Ireland and need the supports that have not been provided by the Government.

Deputy Thomas Gould

This Bill has been fast-tracked as an attempt to cover up decades of underinvestment in our energy grid. I absolutely agree that we need a modern, fit-for-purpose grid but it must be done with the required Government accountability. Sinn Féin has four constructive amendments we are asking the Minister to consider. They include proposals for greater transparency, fairness in pricing and the prioritisation of projects. Data centres cannot be given the same priority as hospitals. This is an issue on which we see bad Government policies leading to priorities not being delivered.

The Bill should have included actions to ensure consumers are not forced to pay increasing energy costs while energy companies see soaring profits. There are people struggling with the cost of heating. As we face into winter, hundreds of thousands of people are in arrears on their electricity bills. With prices having gone through the roof, more and more will join them. The Government must do more to tackle the energy companies. With the removal of the energy credits, the Government itself has increased people's energy costs this year. People were dependent on those energy credits. They were their hope of being able to pay bills and keep the heating and lighting on during winter.

There are families sitting right now in cold homes. There are parents who feel like failures because they are not able to look after themselves and, in particular, their children the way they should be. There are older people - I have spoken to them in areas I represent, including Madden's Buildings in Blackpool, Roche's Buildings and Barrett's Buildings - who are terrified by the cost of electricity and how they are going to get through this winter without the support of the payments that were made last year.

Will the Government ensure that energy companies are not making horrible profits on the backs of ordinary people who are really struggling? Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have for too long cowardly not tackled these companies and their major profits.

An Leas-Cheann Comhairle

The Deputy should conclude.

Deputy Thomas Gould

We believe that price legislation should work for the ordinary person and our amendments look to deliver on that. This is about people's quality of life. This is about people not being afraid. Can the Minister of State imagine being afraid to turn on the electricity or the heating?

Deputy Michael Collins

This Bill allows the ESB to borrow up to €17 billion and issue €1.5 billion in capital stock, much of it going to two Departments. It is framed as a step towards modernising our grid and preparing for future demand. Yes, investment in infrastructure is always vital but, let us be clear, the people of Ireland are already paying the price - literally. Electricity bills have soared. The average household now pays over €1,800 a year for electricity. Some suppliers have increased prices by up to 13.5%, adding €18 a month for an already stretched family. We are told this is due to network charges and wholesale price volatility but that is cold comfort to families who are choosing between heating and eating.

Families were given two €125 energy credits, both issued early in the year, and nothing since. Budget 2026 has no new energy credits, no targeted reliefs and no plan to support more than 300,000 households now in arrears. Where is the fairness in this? Where is the urgency to protect the vulnerable? We are investing billions in the grid, yet schools are fundraising just to pay their ESB bills. Principals are forced to choose between heating classrooms and buying basic supplies. That is not sustainable. It is not fair and it is not the Ireland we should accept. If we can find €1.5 billion for capital stock, surely we can find the resources to restore energy credits and provide targeted supports for those most affected by energy poverty.

I support investment in our energy future, but I cannot support a system that asks ordinary people to foot the bill while removing the very supports that helped them survive in the past few winters. We also need to acknowledge the people who are doing everything they can to keep the lights on, such as the ESB crews who go out in all kinds of weather, often in dangerous conditions, to restore power to homes and businesses. Their dedication deserves our thanks and our respect but they too need a system that works, one that is properly resourced, well planned and future-proofed. The recent storms have shown just how vulnerable our infrastructure is. Trees falling along roads have knocked out ESB poles, causing widespread outages. This is not just bad luck; it is a sign of poor planning and underinvestment. Red tape and outdated systems continue to hold us back.

That is why I welcome the appointment of our Galway West councillor, Noel Thomas, as our spokesperson for planning reform. He has already raised important concerns with me, including the need to simplify claim forms for those affected by storm damage in Galway West and in other areas affected by the serious storms that hit. These forms must be easy to understand and quick to complete, especially for older people and those under pressure. Councillor Noel Thomas told me that Storm Éowyn caused unbelievable damage in his own constituency, as it probably did in the Minister of State's constituency. That is a very serious concern for the constituents of Galway West and it is an issue the Government needs to take up. It is fine to say we are investing in infrastructure, but the companies themselves are making a fortune out of ordinary, everyday people who work hard in this country and the Government does not seem to understand or sympathise with that, as can be proven by the last budget.

We must act now to strengthen our infrastructure, cut through bureaucracy and ensure people can access support when they need it most because this is not just about energy. It is about dignity, fairness and whether we are building a country that works for everyone or just those at the top. I still ask the Government to reconsider the decision it made in the budget not to give energy credits to customers. These people come into my clinic every weekend. They are suffering in every way they can be hit by the Government with extra taxes. This was one little bit of relief they got just before the previous election, with the promises and all of that. That was great, but now the election is over and it is time for people to suffer. That is not good enough.

Deputy Ken O'Flynn

Once again, we are asked to hand the Government and the ESB a blank cheque of €5 billion in borrowing authority and €1.5 billion more in taxpayer capital, with no plan, no accountability and no guarantees of benefit to the Irish people. Let us be honest in this House: the Government record on energy policy is a record of failure. Ireland now has the second highest household energy prices in the entire European Union. Eurostat confirms we now pay around 48 cent per kilowatt-hour, compared with 31 cent across Europe, 27 cent in France and 30 cent in the Kingdom of Spain. Ireland is an energy-rich island paying poverty prices, but the only constant has been Government complacency.

Ordinary people are being crushed. This winter, working families - not just the poorest of working families but working families who are doing everything right, paying their bills and getting up early in the morning, going to work and putting in their shifts and time - are choosing between heating their houses and what they are purchasing in Lidl, Aldi, Dunnes or SuperValu. The are picking between whether they can afford this or that for the child or how merry Christmas will be because they have to heat the house as well.

Last week, I met with a pensioner and sat in his home, a cottage in Rathcooney in County Cork, wrapped in a blanket with one heater going and a hot water bottle. That gentleman finds it so difficult to find the money to pay the electricity bills coming into his house because it is an old property. He does not have the moneys to do the property up, despite what is available from the Government in terms of grants. I have spoken to small business owners from Ballincollig to Little Island who are telling me they are closing early or closing one day a week just to save on energy and lighting costs. That is not progress. It is an absolute scandal. What has been the Government's response? It has been to let the ESB report profits of €868 million. While the State dividend rolls in, the households of Ireland have to tighten their belts, are told to put on an extra jumper or, as the Minister of State's predecessor suggested, share the heating with their neighbour and go from house to house. That is not an energy policy. It is daylight robbery, dressed up as climate virtue.

I support the investment in the grid but, let us be clear, the failure to build proper infrastructure lies squarely at the feet of this Government. Every builder, developer and employer in Ireland can tell you the same thing. The biggest barrier to growth is not the planning red tape; it is the supply of power and water. Projects have been delayed because there is no grid capacity, factories are stalled because there is no connection to take them and housing estates are refused planning because the system simply cannot cope, in respect of both energy and water. That is not the fault of the planner, the engineer or the local authority. It is the failure of national leadership. It is a failure of plans and a failure to invest in the future and think ahead.

Ireland has some of the highest taxes in Europe and the largest budget surplus in the history of the State, yet the State cannot guarantee enough electricity or water to build homes or businesses. That is the definition of incompetence on the Government's side. If this Bill is to mean anything, it must mark the end of complacency and the raising of the ESB borrowing limit to €17 billion must come with strict conditions. There must be full transparency around the borrowings, an independent audit and legally binding timelines for the grid expansion. Timelines for grid expansion are vital. Every euro must go on real infrastructure, stronger cabling, faster connections, rural upgrades and modern sustainability.

No more can we have the day of the consultant and report after report. No more can we have bureaucracy and another round of self-congratulating Ministers who have failed to deliver. Ireland deserves an energy system that works and fully supports families, industries and home building. The people who are paying the bills deserve answers, not excuses. I say clearly to those on the Government benches that before they lecture us on public sustainability, make sure people can afford to turn on the lights. The Government is not addressing that.

Deputy Peadar Tóibín

The two biggest problems this Government has are the delivery of infrastructure and rip-off Ireland. The two elements are inextricably linked. The inability to deliver on infrastructure is hammering families throughout the country. It is adding to massive misery and difficulties for so many families in so many areas in terms of housing, electricity, water and transport. One of the reasons that is happening is that in this State at the moment, Government inaction around planning, permits, tendering, etc., has allowed that aspect to delay projects. Right now we have some of the slowest planning permissions delivered, the slowest permitting, the slowest licensing and the slowest tendering in the whole of the EU. Judicial reviews go on for years. As a result, key infrastructure gets snarled up in a process. None of that is by accident. It has not evolved by itself but as a result of legislation that the Government has been involved in for the past 15 years.

The second issue relates to the fact that electricity is holding up so many other aspects of infrastructure delivery. Right now, hundreds of homes in this State are not being built or are not connected and not lived in as a result of that lack of electricity. The lack of electricity infrastructure is slowing down the building of homes. That is an incredible indictment on the Government. In terms of price, spiralling costs are currently affecting families. There are 412,000 households in this country in fuel poverty. It is incredible that nearly half a million households in this country in fuel poverty. The prices of electricity are extremely high. Energy prices in Ireland are three times the wholesale prices. That is one of the biggest gaps in the world. The Government often tells us there are lots of reasons we have higher electricity prices than anywhere else in the world. However, the fact is that those reasons all lie under the wholesale price. Electricity prices here are three times higher than the wholesale price. The gap between the retail price of electricity and the cost of producing it is one of the highest in the world at the moment.

Electricity companies are failing to pass on the profits they are involved in. Why would they not? The ESB is a semi-State company. It is delivering Government policy. It is salting the people. It is involved in super-normal profits in terms of its revenue. The ESB made €706 million profit last year in a cost-of-living crisis. That is an incredible situation.

Even the pricing of electricity happens within this State as a function of the dearest element of the production of electricity. The Government is artificially increasing the price of electricity to make sure it is being priced at the dearest element, which is often gas. The Government's legislation is allowing for that.

In regard to retrofitting, about which I have heard people talk, only 22,000 homes reached the gold standard of B2 retrofitting last year. That is well short of the half a million households that are in the target for 2030. In terms of any retrofitting, only 54,000 homes were retrofitted at any level last year. There are 1.6 million homes in need of retrofitting. That means it will take 50 years to get to a retrofitting situation where families have a comfortable home with low energy costs.

The issue of data centres messes with my mind. We are told that we have to do so much to reduce the level of electricity usage and that we have to do our best to make sure we are a low-carbon economy. At the same time, the Government is flying high in terms of the increasing number of data centres coming into this sector. Data centres use 22% of all metered electricity in this State. That is way out of kilter in terms of the European Union which is about 3% or 4%. That figure is likely to reach 30% by 2030. There is one rule for the small family dealing with electricity but a different rule for the large multinationals. AI is going to drive that through the roof.

In terms of Storm Éowyn, two weeks after that storm 13,000 homes were still without electricity. Most of those homes were in the west or the midlands, showing again that this Dublin Government is forgetting about the west of Ireland in terms of infrastructure. One of the reasons it was hit so hard was that so much of our infrastructure is overground. Yet, this Government wants to proceed with the EirGrid north-south interconnector which is overground. We have been waiting for this infrastructure for 15 years. A bull-headed instinct by the Government to overground it is delaying it. Only 15% of homes, families and farms are going to allow EirGrid onto their property to build it. Some 85% of farmers are not going to allow it. It is going to remain in limbo for years as a result of this Government's instincts to force it overground.

We need a situation where we have investments but we have to free up the process, the red tape and bureaucracy that has been added on to the system by years of Fine Gael Governments that are slowing down the delivery of much-needed infrastructure. Unless we get to that we are just pouring that money into a bottomless pit. I see no real evidence that this Government means business when it comes to getting rid of the bureaucracy and red tape that are slowing down infrastructural development in this country.

Deputy Paul Nicholas Gogarty

This legislation is welcome, if modest. As others have mentioned, it is a response to disruption caused by Storm Éowyn. It will allow for the creation and maintenance of forestry corridors and vegetation management, subject hopefully to environmental obligations under the Habitats and Birds Directives. I have no problem with the legal mechanism to make an additional €1.5 billion equity investment in the ESB to part finance the PR6 energy grid investment programme. However, I am more interested in the larger scale investment required. Obviously, we note the proposal to raise the statutory borrowing limit from €12 billion to €17 billion to help to finance proposed future capital projects, including the new lines, the underground cables, the upgraded substations and the 50,000-plus electricity poles. It is a massive investment that is needed but we need to see the detail of what is coming to modernise and future-proof the grid.

We are talking about a potential €10 billion to €13 billion investment plan up to 2030. However, a couple of things need to go alongside this. I note a private wires policy statement was published in July that outlined scenarios whereby private developers can build and own electricity lines to connect generators to customers. I do not have an issue with that in principle but I do have an issue if it is purely to allow companies to create their own private sections that will impact on the grid. My definition of private wires would be more about an area like a housing estate that has a wind turbine beside it or an array of solar panels where people can be offgrid in a situation like a storm so they are able to switch over to their own group generator. I would like to get more information on that type of thing.

I agree that data centres need to be able to produce their own energy and feed into the grid rather than taking out of what we already have.

To be positive, I notice the microgeneration support scheme and the clean export guarantee tariff already in place for exporting excess renewable electricity to the grid. On a massive national scale in terms of having the potential to be exporters, we have to first of all make sure that we are efficient in our usage. In that context, I agree with colleagues in terms of subsidising the bills people are facing right now. It does make sense to continue it. I welcomed the continuation of the 9% VAT on electricity but I do not see anything going towards getting people to reduce their energy consumption. Back in the 1970s, we used to hear about closing doors and switching off all plugs because there is seepage from leaving on Wi-Fi at night-time or from leaving USB chargers plugged in. There is not enough information out there to help people to reduce their bills. I have noticed that constituents, especially older ones, do not change over their tariff after a year has elapsed. They are stuck in an overpriced standard tariff when they could be saving money. I agree that the Government should be helping people during these tight times. However, we should also provide people with more education about how to reduce bills themselves.

I have mentioned in previous contributions that the visionary aspect should be that we should be a net energy exporter, assuming we have capacity for ourselves. To get to that, we need to have more consistency and more clarity on the energy storage policy framework, for example, which has an immediate procurement target of 500 MW for the transmission system and 500 MW for demand flexibility for the distribution. However, there are criticisms about this. There is no long-term concrete mechanism or any example of urgency. I would like to see clarification in terms of long-duration energy storage.

That would be beneficial, as would conversion to green hydrogen. We also have a lack of cohesion between the stakeholders in terms of the planning, EirGrid and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. I do not see the joined-up thinking to meet our climate action targets or our energy production targets. If we want to get to net exporter status, we need to fast-track our investment in the grid. While this €1.5 billion is welcome, we need a tangible €13.5 billion-plus investment to happen in the next three to four years.

Deputy Barry Ward

I welcome this Bill. It is a hugely important piece of infrastructural progress. I welcome the fact it has come to us as quickly as it has, making good on a commitment in the programme for Government. I recognise that the Bills Office and the Minister of State’s Department turned it around in quite a short period of time. I also recognise the pre-legislative scrutiny done by my party colleague Deputy Naoise Ó Muirí and his committee. I welcome the fact the Bill has progressed quickly and is here. It does some important things.

I have listened to the debate and heard the criticism from many colleagues, but let us get down to brass tacks. This Bill is about providing the electricity infrastructure that we need to build houses to start to erode the deficit in housing provision. If we do not do this, we will not be able to do it. It is that simple. This is an absolutely necessary measure to allow the ESB to put in place the electricity infrastructure that is going to allow houses to come on stream faster and across the whole country. If there was no other reason to welcome this Bill, that would be a good reason to welcome it. I hope the ESB and EirGrid will be able to do that as fast as possible.

I listened to the debate and heard the criticism of, for example, electricity prices. I join with those Deputies. I do not understand why the Commission for Regulation of Utilities has allowed electricity prices to go up as far as they have. I understand there was a peak in generation costs at the time of the outbreak of the Ukraine war. That is no longer there. In fact, with 40% of our electricity generation coming from renewables, I do not understand why we have not dealt with that problem.

We talk about it in the context of the budget and whether or not we should have targeted measures or ongoing supports. Leaving that debate entirely to one side, there is a simple solution to this, and it is to tackle the energy companies about the cost of electricity. It is unjustifiable. Maybe I do not understand and there may be a perfectly good reason, but I have not heard it yet. In the absence of such a reason, we should be going back to the CRU and asking it to explain why it has allowed electricity prices to become as inflated as they have, particularly in the context of our European neighbours. I do not really understand why we have allowed ourselves to become an outlier in that regard. The cost of electricity is something that I hope can be addressed when the infrastructural deficit is addressed by this investment.

Mention has also been made of microgeneration, something that Ireland has been absolutely behind the curve on. Households all over this country are willing to use solar panels or other ways of microgeneration including geothermal, but they are not facilitated by the network to do that in real terms. While it may be technically possible to put electricity back into the grid, there is no real incentive to do it. The unit price that a householder gets for putting it back is negligible even compared with the wholesale price of electricity. That is not going to encourage people to use the facilities at their disposal to feed the electricity generated within their homes, farms, businesses or wherever it might be back into the network to contribute to the overall amount of electricity available.

The other issue I have heard people refer to, including Deputy Gogarty, is long-duration energy storage. That is something that could definitely be a target of infrastructure spending. When we put the target together for the number of electric vehicles on the road, one of the big pluses for me was that we would have cars charging overnight, drawing electricity from the grid and essentially being a national battery for electricity that could then be used during the day when there is a greater demand on the grid. These mobile batteries would be there, having absorbed the excess energy available overnight. I do not know what plans the ESB has for large-scale long-duration electricity storage, but where we have good renewables, particularly in wind, we should be taking that energy and making sure it is there when there is a need for it on an ongoing basis. I would welcome any news the Minister of State might have on the plans within this infrastructure development to increase long-duration electricity storage.

The other issue raised was data centres. I join with my colleagues in their concern about the extent that data centres are gobbling up electricity. I do not agree that we should have a moratorium, but I do not understand why every data centre in this country is not covered in solar panels to begin with. To the greatest extent possible, they should be doing what they can to ensure they are using renewable electricity. I recognise that when they take electricity from the grid, it might be renewable electricity, but they are using electricity that could be used by somebody else, who is then relying on electricity that is not renewable. The greatest concern I have about data centres is that when they do not get enough electricity from the grid, they are relying on on-site diesel generators to feed their electricity needs. That has to be worst possible way to generate electricity, particularly on the small scale of a data centre. We need to take steps as a Government to ensure that data centres are ideally not doing that at all, but certainly to the very minimum extent possible.

Finally, I will make a point on the construction of this Bill. The principal Act referred to in the Bill is the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act 1954. As I understand it, that Act has been amended 20 times since then. When you pick up the Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Bill 2025 and look at it, it is illegible. Section 2 will say that section 4 of the principal Act is amended by amending the reference to €12 billion to a reference to €17 billion. When you are reading the Bill, that means nothing. It means nothing in isolation. Section 4 has been amended over and over again. In order to understand what this Bill actually says, you have to go back and dig up 20 different pieces of legislation to actually understand section 4 of this new amendment Bill. Why do we not take the original section 4, repeal it or restate it in the new Bill so that somebody reading the legislation can know what it does? Of course, you can read briefing documents, but legislation should be accessible to people. They should not have to trawl through years and years of legislation to find out what it means.

Deputy John McGuinness

There will be many families and community groups in my constituency that will listen to this debate and wonder how quickly this Bill has come before us here in the Dáil and note how well supported it has been across all parties and groups. They will then look at the regulations for windfarms. There was a debate here in 2013 and the then Minister was asked for regulations, to level the playing field and to ensure that the voices of communities and individuals were heard. To this day, we do not have the regulations that are necessary to protect local communities and to set out the criteria for the development of these large-scale windfarms. There are problems with these issues in Kilkenny, Carlow and into Laois. Families were here with us in the audiovisual room setting out their positions. They told us some distressing stories and yet there is no regulation.

I asked the then Taoiseach if he would consider a moratorium on the applications that were there so that the regulations could be introduced and applied to any development taking place. I also asked that the huge windfarms, the new technologies and new sized blades and towers could at least be discussed in this House. That did not happen.

Deputy Stanley has a Bill on this issue. I ask the Minister of State to take it and use it on Second Stage to bring about a debate on this issue so that we can come to some conclusions on what needs to be done and plan for the future . We also need to reach out and help the individuals and communities that we represent. It is not just Carlow, Kilkenny and Laois; it is right across the country.

If you drive along the road from Kilkenny to Durrow, you will find that the local communities have windmills behind them, and there are plans for windmills in front of them too. No consideration is being given to their difficulties. In fact, I would say the system is stacked against them because the big companies involved have no problem paying for submissions. However, communities have to pay for the submissions that have been forced upon them. It is dividing local communities and causing mayhem between neighbours. I ask the Minister of State to look at the different options that are there.

Why not look at the nuclear option? Small nuclear plants are being built all over France and Germany. They are not at all the way they used to be. They are an option. We import electricity generated by nuclear plants while we hold the moral high ground and say, "Oh my God, I wouldn't have those in this country." We should stand up, take our responsibility seriously and bring about the change in policy that is necessary to deal with these issues.

I draw the Minister of State's attention to the big energy companies and I will give an example. The energy companies are not treating their customers with respect. They are not showing any degree of compassion. People cannot get in touch with them unless they use the freephone line and queue forever. They could be cut off in the middle of their conversation. If they send an email of complaint, God knows what will happen to it. I followed up one of them today in my constituency office. The phone was cut off. I could not get through on the email and when I finally submitted a third-party authorisation, it was sent back to me because the man signed his name as "Ger" followed by his second name, when his name is "Gerard". They asked me to get the man to sign the full name, "Gerard". These are vulnerable customers who are appealing to big energy companies making huge profits to sort out a meter or help them to pay a bill, or they are asking why a single man in a house would generate electricity up to €3,000 of a bill. There is something wrong. They will not reach out to the customer, as any other company should and would, to help them resolve the issue and get paid.

Accountability and reporting oversight are critical to this Bill and the money involved and I do not see enough in it to convince me there are conditions that must be met by the companies and that we are serious about value for money and oversight of taxpayers' money.

I turn to the domestic and commercial cost to SMEs. Farmers who pay their bills, in particular dairy farmers, have come to me and said that, in the middle of milking, down goes the electricity. They have a power failure. When they report it to the energy company, they get absolutely zero traction to sort it out. Small businesses are closing because of the cost of electricity and nobody seems to be reaching out to stop companies charging them far too much for electricity.

The number of domestic and commercial customers waiting to be connected is truly shocking. They are getting no respect or response from the big companies. I had an experience on the Hebron industrial estate with a commercial operator. It is impossible to get the answer so that a supply can be arranged and housing provided for those on waiting lists. There is so much to be done. I ask the Minister to please take note of what is being said by me and other speakers, and to act on it.

Deputy Barry Heneghan

Ba mhaith liom comghairdeas mór a dhéanamh le Catherine Connolly, an Uachtarán-elect. What I say in this contribution is not directed at the Minister of State; it is directed at the entire system I have been facing ever since being elected to this House. I welcome the Bill and the opportunity it provides. The billions of euro in investment in ESB Networks are badly needed. I am a member of the climate and energy committee and we are constantly discussing how Ireland's electricity system will be developed over the next four years we are in government. This is essential infrastructure. It underpins huge issues we face across Departments, from the housing crisis to economic growth gridlocks and the renewable energy transition. I love how we call it a transition; it is not a transition but the complete scrapping of our current energy system and the building of a new one. We are changing, like the entire world is. This scale of investment, with the hundreds of projects and the substations, has been needed for years. I welcome the funding and the fact the ESB is getting reduced rates. It is helping to secure Ireland's energy future.

We will face huge fines running into billions of euro regarding our energy. That is not 100% confirmed by the EU but if it is the case we need to do everything now. I have spoken about this in the House multiple times. That is why we cannot ignore the wider truths. It is a fact that our energy system is not keeping pace.

I recently visited multiple solar farms across Ireland during the break. The owners and engineers told me they are turning off solar farms because the grid cannot take it due to curtailment. I understand the Bill is trying to tackle that but it needs to be fast-tracked because it does not make sense that we are turning off Irish solar farms to then import, as the previous Deputy mentioned, electricity from the UK that is from nuclear plants and other projects that they have, and buying off them when we have our own solar farms. It does not make sense to the public or to me. It is just bureaucracy and outdated policy. We saw this before with the North-South interconnector. It was identified in 2008 and is still not built. That critical infrastructure is delayed not by technology but by indecision.

When I entered this House, one of the reasons the Ceann Comhairle ruled I was not a Member of the Opposition was that I claimed private wire policy was a win for me and my team. That policy is something I have been working on since January and I met with the OPLA today to review the Bill I am working on. The Bill is for small-scale local issues, to help eco-villages and small industry; it is not going to help big industry.

Deputy Paul Nicholas Gogarty

Hear, hear.

Deputy Barry Heneghan

These small local issues will be the things that help. At the moment, it is not only that there is a housing crisis. Where somebody is waiting for a connection to build houses, if someone else can easily build a solar farm and have a direct line link to those houses, it will speed up everything. Germany, the UK and Denmark are doing it. I understand the Government is bringing forward a policy and I welcome the fact the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, announced that, but it needs to be fast-tracked. When I knock on doors in my constituency, I find people are struggling with energy bills. Private wires will reduce bills because of the demand on the grid being used by big energy. If they can take that off, this will reduce the demand and the cost per unit.

We constantly discuss in the climate and energy committee the curtailment we will face with the ORE being built across Ireland at the moment. It is great to see. There was a €90 million investment in Cork Port. It was great but many experts say we need to put more than €90 million in for when these large vessels come in to develop offshore renewable energy projects. To make it as effective as possible, more needs to be going in. I asked two weeks ago for the maritime law to be changed so the Department could put this on. It would be very good if this could be looked at and fast-tracked. If we could build infrastructure at our ports in the west using offshore renewable energy off the coast of my constituency, we could tackle the curtailment, take in the surplus energy, build electrolysis centres with private wires and have long-duration energy. The end goal is being as efficient as possible. No other country has the potential we have on our coasts to build our grid. With this great Bill, which I welcome, it needs to be done correctly. We need experts there. It cannot be brought down by inertia and indecision.

Private wires can play a major role in reducing emissions, cutting connection delays and supporting economic activity. Eco-villages across the country help us decarbonise the data sector while allowing it to grow responsibly. I am well aware 53,000 jobs are directly or indirectly linked to the data centre industry in this country. I will not say the industry needs to be removed. I understand the FDI that comes from it but we need to mitigate the damage it is causing. That is something we can do right now.

Solar farms across the country are waiting 18 to 24 months, on record, for a connection. It is ridiculous that they are built, sitting there and not supplying homes.

I urge the Minister of State and his Department to look into fast-tracking private wires as a simple win for the Government and for our climate, our housing and our entire grid system.

Deputy Carol Nolan

I very much welcome this Bill, given the urgent need to take active steps towards financing and upgrading our creaking energy grid. If that requires amending an outdated series of rules around ESB borrowing, we should get on and do exactly that.

Clearly there is a need here, if the existing laws and limits go back to the 1950s or the 2000s.

The Bill deals with the current ESB fund of €13.4 billion for the PR6 investment programme and the construction of the North-South interconnector, which is a critical piece of infrastructure, but my concern is more on the micro level than on the macro level. It is all well and good investing in the grid and energy infrastructure, but what good will that do if we continue having homes in entire communities, and indeed businesses, living with blackouts. If we do not do the simple things right, like cutting back trees that knock down power lines, we are missing the point entirely. A reinforced grid is one thing but maintaining continuity of supply often comes down to the small, local and practical details. Given that the State will grant an additional €1.5 billion in shares or capital stock in ESB, we also need firm assurances that this level of taxpayer investment will be protected.

I have major concerns around the persistence of moving towards such levels of so-called renewable energy for our grid. I am not at all convinced that the economic, environmental or infrastructural arguments relating to wind energy, for example, are as credible as people think, and I am extremely concerned about the lack of protections for many communities throughout the State. In my constituency of Offaly, I have constituents complaining about infrasound from a wind farm. They are not being listened to. We have no guidelines and we have absolutely no protections for those communities. I have called time and again for a moratorium on wind farms until the guidelines are published but, more importantly, until the guidelines give balance to this whole debate and argument and protect communities and their rights and so far that is not happening. It is shocking to see wind farms being imposed on communities that are completely opposed. I have also had an issue with farms in Offaly where it is affecting animals. Not alone is it affecting the residents, but it is affecting the animals in the fields. I have had reports of livestock having to be moved when a wind farm went into north Offaly. That is not fair. We need a balance between communities and corporate entities.

I will end on electricity prices. As I have stated here previously, giving energy credits, which were welcomed by many struggling households around the State, was letting the energy companies off the hook. Why are the energy companies allowed to continue to profiteer? I call on Government to tackle that issue head on. It has to be tackled. We are all elected here to represent communities throughout the State, not to represent the energy companies. That needs to be tackled and there needs to be fairness.

I ask again for the energy companies to be brought in before the Oireachtas committee on energy and climate. That needs to happen quickly. I have had constituents, including pensioners and ordinary hard-working families who are stretched trying to pay bills and, indeed, businesses, into my offices and I know for a fact that many small businesses have closed because they just were not able to meet the high energy costs.

It is wrong that Government is continuing to sit back and allow the energy companies to profiteer when people and small businesses are struggling. Are we not here to represent the ordinary people and the small SMEs around the State who create huge employment? Is that not our purpose here? My understanding was that was why we were all elected here. It was not to represent corporate entities; it was to represent communities and our constituents. I am calling for Government to tackle this issue of extortionate electricity prices once and for all.

Deputy Danny Healy-Rae

I am glad to get the chance to talk about this serious and, for some people, emotive matter here this evening.

I welcome the investment by Government in the ESB. It surely needs to improve when we see communities left without electricity for days and weeks in places such as Cordal, Brosna, Gneeveguilla, Glencar and Knocknagoshel earlier in the year because of a storm. I have to mention one aspect of that operation. I want to thank all the workers that put their lives in danger trying to restore the lines, day and night, to get the power going. I have to commend them very highly. ESB management, who were overseeing this and ensuring the workers were out there, refused to make drones available to them to find the outages in dense forestry and terrain that was hardly traversable. If they had the facility of having a drone to go out, check the line and see where it was broken down, it would have saved hours, days and weeks of time for those poor men working hard on the ground trying to rectify the situation. I want the Minister of State to ask why that did not happen in Kerry and why drones were not made available to the crews on the ground. That is one of the questions.

The other problem I have is that we hear this massive sum being invested in the ESB, but what are we doing for our consumers that have to pay so much? I see here a list. Energia imposed a 12.1% increase from 9 October last. Bord Gáis raised its electricity unit rates by 13.5% and its standing charges by 12%. SSE Airtricity prices rose 9.5% and those of Flogas 7%. Why is there such a difference in the first place? Flogas's increase is just half what they others are. There is no law or order, or control, at all here. Pinergy had an increase of 9.83%. Do we have a regulator? Where is he? Did he ever open his mouth? Is he asleep all the time? What is happening the regulator or is he there at all? That is what I am asking. This is the only sector where companies seem to get what increases they want and the poor consumers have to suffer these massive charges.

Many people are cajoled and forced into this situation that they have to use so much electricity. They were told to do this. The building energy rating, BER, rating was forced upon thousands of people that have built new houses by the banks and other lending institutions. They have to have the lowest BER rating and to do that means they cannot have a chimney with an open fireplace or whatever form of heating they desire. This is why they have been forced into electricity only. The Government then will find that when the power goes out, there is no one to help them. Two council houses that I pass every morning when I leave Kilgarvan have been unoccupied for over a year. There was people living in them up until then. The reason is they were selected for complete retrofitting at a cost of over €100,000. There was nothing wrong with the houses only to paint them up and do a few jobs to them, not to take off the roofs and take out the chimneys which is what is happening. They are gone at 18 occupied houses over in Rathmore now, trying to force people into taking out their little stoves and fireplaces. I had an elderly lady bawling crying on the phone to ask Kerry County Council not to take out her little stove. That is what is happening. There are vacant houses around the place that are not being got ready for reuse or to leave other tenants into them, and they have no place to live at the present time.

Many farmers and others are generating electricity themselves. They were encouraged to produce enough that they could sell it and now we find the grid is only going the one way, bringing electricity to them. The infrastructure is not there to sell the electricity to the ESB. The ESB, in some cases, will only take one third of what they can produce. There is something wrong here and I ask the Minister of State to look at that. It is very serious.

Hundreds of people have been on to me that their power is being turned off and that they cannot pay the bills.

This is what they find when they have these heat pumps that are running all the year round. They were able to carry on themselves and get a few bags of turf or a bag of coal. We appreciate the fuel allowance, but it is not as going as far as people need it to go with these exorbitant electricity bills.

I was amazed, when it was made known at the agricultural committee meeting last week, that some of these people who are building commercial anaerobic digesters can get a grant of up to €5 million from the State. Imagine that. What this is about is meeting our 2030 targets for generation of energy. This is being paid for by taxpayers. It is everything and anything just to meet our targets, regardless of what it will cost. Can you imagine what a €5 million grant would do for people who are trying to pay the electricity costs they have? In the first place, I think I was the only one who voted against the timing for the 2030 emissions target deadline. I was the only one in Dáil Éireann. Every other man, woman, party, Independent and individual voted for 2030. I did not. I know a lot of people will get hurt and squeezed in between.

I mentioned retrofitting new and occupied houses against the wishes of tenants. I go back to the way people are being forced and encouraged to use electricity. When we realise that the power can go out at any time, we hope that the ESB and Ministers are ensuring that we will not have outages like we had before, when trees were left too close to wires. What has happened until now, whether it happens all the time or not, is when the ESB is told about trees rubbing off wires, it is only allowed to cut them back a metre from the lines. That is not good enough. That is not adequate because tall trees fall the length of themselves onto the wires. I ask for that to be reviewed to ensure no tree is left standing. They should not be left standing along any road either because we see people in cars being killed. These trees are overshadowing wires and roads. That should not be happening.

I again go back to the exorbitant costs and the regulation, which is not there. It is immaterial. While we support the investment, I do not support what is happening to customers. We do not have a regulator. He is not doing his job. It is the Ministers' duty; this is their time in position. They are the Ministers of today. They should ensure the energy regulator gets out and does his job, and gives clarification and transparency to what is happening. Are the energy companies entitled to these increases or are they not? I feel they are not.

Minister of State at the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment (Deputy Alan Dillon)

I also warmly congratulate our President-elect, Catherine Connolly. I wish her the very best in her appointment. Leaving Mayo-Galway rivalries aside, I know she will do a tremendous job. I wish her the very best.

I thank all the Deputies for their engagement in respect of this very important Bill. I appreciate the general support right across the Chamber in that regard. The fact that many Members have contributed to the debate demonstrates the importance and relevance of energy issues. I welcome the broad range of contributions on such wide-ranging issues. I will, most importantly, keep my comments focused on the content and purpose of the Bill.

It is perhaps worthwhile to begin by restating the purpose of the Bill. It is very much focused on creating capital stock in the ESB in return for payment. This will be the mechanism by which the Government will provide the €1.5 billion investment in the ESB to support critical development of our electricity and grid over the next five years, as committed to in the updated national development plan. This investment will be crucial, as many Deputies said, in modernising, building that resilience and reinforcing our electricity network infrastructure. It will also support the Government's key priorities in infrastructure, housing, competitiveness, investment growth and climate action.

Within that, there will be a robust accountability and oversight mechanism for the expenditure by ESB Networks. Indeed, that will increase significantly in price review 6. The company will be obliged to report to the CRU, on a programme by programme basis, on cost, performance, delivery and the timeline for delivery. The Minister will also require ESB Networks, as part of this investment, to report quarterly on network expenditure, network financing, delivery and debt, which is very important. There will be a clear and transparent reporting mechanism for the Minister. That has been an important theme that needs to be emphasised as part of this. It is also important to recall that the State itself will receive, on a receive-return basis, a return on its €1.5 billion investment and, as the major shareholder, on ESB profits via payment of dividends. The Government's investment will be complemented by additional privately sourced debt, funded by the ESB, to finance the delivery of the overall price review 6 investment programme. The Bill will ensure that it also provides for the increase in the ESB statutory borrowing limit from €12 billion to €17 billion.

This large-scale investment in the grid as part of PR 6 will deliver energy security into the future for Irish families and communities right across the country. It will significantly improve network resilience and future-proof it for generations to come. It will enable the connection of hundreds of thousands of new homes - as I said, we have an ambitious target of over 300,000 homes over the term of this Government - improve connectivity and accelerate the connection of new sources of renewable electricity. It is another important piece of legislation that demonstrates the Government's commitment in meeting our critical infrastructure needs as a State and balancing the needs around housing, economic growth and employment in our economy in delivering the key infrastructure we require.

I will respond to some of the key themes and questions raised by many Deputies. One related to high energy prices. Many Deputies raised their concerns around the impact of these high prices on households and businesses. We fully understand these concerns. Many Deputies will be aware that a number of factors give rise to higher energy costs right across Ireland. One of the principal factors is our current reliance on fossil fuels, in particular, imported gas. We are very much reliant on imported gas, which is particularly vulnerable to price volatility in the international wholesale gas market. We are very much focused on building a more renewable base. Electrification provides a route not just to decarbonising our energy system but also reducing our dependency on imported gas. We, along with many of our neighbours, very much feel the impact of our vulnerability to reliance on gas as our main energy source. We are making great strides in substituting our fossil fuels with indigenously generated wind and solar energy. This journey to a clean energy source is very much part of this programme. Electrification can only be achieved through investment in our electricity grid. That is what we are focused on through this Bill.

In addition, the €1.5 billion investment in ESB, which the Bill we are discussing will facilitate, will help keep consumer costs associated with the PR6 infrastructure programme to a minimum by ensuring the ESB maintains a high credit rating but also can borrow at low interest rates.

In terms of supporting householders and businesses on the more immediate basis, I again highlight some of the key measures Government is progressing to help current energy costs, including the extension of the reduced VAT rate of 9% on gas and electricity. We also increased the weekly fuel allowance by €5 from January 2026. That will provide an additional €140 to over 400 households during the annual fuel allowance season. We are extending the €400 tax exemption from profits from micro-generation of electricity to 2028. We are also providing a range of grants to include solar PV on homes, businesses and farms to make it easier for people to improve their energy efficiencies and produce their own energy. We have also received confirmation from the main energy suppliers that the hardship funds for those struggling to meet their energy costs will also be made available to households over the winter.

Deputies asked how much investment has been allocated in facilitating new data centres. I assure them that price review 6 takes many Government targets into account including the connection of up to 50,000 new homes a year, up to 1 million electric vehicles and currently contracted data centre demand. The programme for Government commits to developing a comprehensive plan to accelerate energy generation connectivity and the planning process. That plan will be guided on the approach around data centres, which provide huge importance within our enterprise system, but we need to provide certainty to the industry when making short- to medium-term investment.

Regarding future grid investment and ESB profits, a number of Deputies asked about grid investment. To date Ireland has invested in the grid at a similar pace to our EU peers, maintaining and upgrading EirGrid as required. Ireland needs to go through a period of change in the use and demand of electricity. Adapting our grid for this increased demand for energy is critical in order to progress our decarbonisation progress.

I am confident that the legislation before the House today is an important step in future-proofing our grid for generations to come. I acknowledge the significant work of the Attorney General, his officials, and officials from both the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure, Infrastructure, Public Service Reform and Digitalisation who have worked with my departmental officials here today in drafting this important legislation. I also thank the members of the Joint Committee on Climate, Environment and Energy for meeting officials for a technical briefing in advance of granting a waiver on the pre-legislative scrutiny. I also thank Deputies from all sides of the House here today for their interest and contributions. I look forward to the early consideration of the next Stage of the Bill taking place tomorrow.

Question put and agreed to.

Dáil Éireann debate - Tuesday, 4 Nov 2025

Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Bill 2025: Second Stage

Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 4 Nov 2025