Did we start a bit ahead of schedule?
Sentiment score: 0.00
77. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the reforms he is considering to the energy market in order to reduce high energy costs; the way in which the work of the NEAT task force is different from the energy poverty steering group; the timeline for publication of the interim and final reports; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60266/25]
Sentiment score: 0.26
I ask the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment about the reforms to the energy market he is considering to reduce high energy costs. An interim report from the national energy affordability task force was published earlier this week. It was a disappointment to many because it identifies some of the well-known problems in Ireland's dysfunctional energy market but offers no solutions. Households are facing a fresh round of price hikes just as the Government rips away supports. They need action. This seems to be a tick-box exercise to distract from the fact that there is no intention to tackle the energy rip-off.
Sentiment score: 0.12
One of the frustrating things about the report from the steering group is that it is just an interim report. We have been told there will be a roadmap. If you were to be cynical, you would say that we first had a report and will now have a roadmap that will not be published until some time in 2026. It is really the destination that we are looking for. The report reaffirms what we have been saying for a long time, which is that no more than lip service is being paid to the crisis and that, because the energy credits were ripped away, energy bills are set to soar. The Minister mentioned energy bills. According to the report, energy bills will reach €1,900 with a real risk they will rise again, given what we saw over the summer. Our energy prices are already some of the highest in Europe. Net electricity prices are the highest while gas prices are the fifth highest. Households pay, on average, €350 per year more for electricity and €150 more for gas. There has been a spate of price hikes across the summer. Will the Government consider reintroducing the supports?
Sentiment score: -0.01
I am glad the Minister mentioned the discussion he is having with the energy companies. Many of them say they had to put up prices due to the network charges, but network charges only rose by about €29 this year. At a recent meeting of the climate committee, the justification for the price hikes by, for example, Energia came under scrutiny. There are concerns that these are being used as an excuse but we in Sinn Féin introduced legislation to enable the Government to hold energy companies to account and it was rejected by the Government. There is no point in sitting down with energy companies, who not only have to make profit this year, but have to make increased profit next year and the year after that, without proper structures to hold them to account and challenge their narrative that it is all due to the war in Ukraine or to network charges. They should be held to account and have to justify their price increases year on year and month after month.
Sentiment score: -0.05
79. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the steps he is taking to ensure the 2026 to 2030 retrofitting and heat pump targets are reached; if he anticipates capital allocation for 2026 will be sufficient; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [60267/25]
Sentiment score: 0.21
In the last question the Minister mentioned the retrofitting and heat pump targets but the target to retrofit 500,000 homes to B2 standard and install 400,000 heat pumps by 2030 seems to be far behind. The Government has delivered just 12% and 3% of those targets. The Government has often said that investment and delivery will rapidly increase year on year, but the budget for 2026 tells a different story. The Minister said it was a record increase but it has the same capital allocation for retrofitting as the Revised Estimate for 2025 so it is actually a decrease on the promised capital investment of €641 million. Are the targets now null and void? Is the Minister going to accept that?
Sentiment score: 0.19
I am not sure the priority has been proven to be those who are most in need. It is not just me questioning the Minister of State’s statement that significant progress has been made. Social Justice Ireland has said the retrofitting scheme constitutes little more than a wealth transfer. The programme for Government made a number of promises to focus on lower income homes to have retrofits each year from 2026 to 2030 but since then there have been zero changes to how the grant scheme is administered and zero effort to tier the grants so that they can be directed at those who need it most because the upfront cost to a home is an astronomical €60,000 to €70,000 which is unacceptable and unaffordable to most people. Most people on lower incomes, especially those who use solid fuel, often in rural, older homes, are locked out of the scheme. It is a bit like the EV scheme where richer people in Dublin and Cork are availing of it more and not those who need it most.
Sentiment score: 0.31
I accept there is a need to simplify the process because it seems to me there was a lack of planning in that some news reports said householders were told to roll back or change their retrofitting efforts on the basis that they were in breach of planning permission. Only 355 loans have been approved over the last year. If the average loan is about €48,000 that is only €17 million which is far from the game-changing results we were promised. Again, the high concentration of loans going towards the east coast has led to far less uptake in the rest of the country when that is factored into it. The Minister of State also mentioned solar. The lowest income homes seem to be locked out of the solar revolution. Will the Minister of State take any steps to try and make the retrofitting more affordable, to tier it and to target specifically people in rural areas, older people who use more solid fuel rather than, as Social Justice Ireland said, a wealth transfer?
Sentiment score: 0.19