I am speaking on behalf of the Government on the Bill. I thank Deputy Daly for tabling it. I will speak to the legislation and explain the rationale as to why we are opposing it, which we are doing on the basis that the CRU already holds significant existing powers to monitor, report and regulate gas and electricity suppliers. Additionally, as the Deputies will be aware, a review of the comprehensive suite of legislation underpinning the work of the CRU has already been commenced by Government. This is in line with our programme for Government commitment to prioritise a review and reform of the legislation underpinning the CRU and to emphasise that low costs for households and businesses are a central tenet in the updated mandate of the CRU. A review of the legislation underpinning the commission has been completed. The next phase of the work involves an assessment of what is adequate or in need of change, including whether a stronger mandate for the CRU is required. I believe that it is, and that will come out of this process. In light of this, any changes to CRU's mandate right now would be premature. However, I acknowledge the manner in which this has been put forward. The Government is putting in place additional measures to ensure a well-functioning energy market and to support energy affordability. Additional staffing resources have been sanctioned and have been allocated to CRU. That is to ensure that the latter can fully and effectively fulfil its remit. The forthcoming transposition of the electricity market design directive by my Department will also provide further consumer protection measures and monitoring of energy supplier hedging practices. Intensive work is under way on the preparation of the energy affordability action plan, which we discussed last week and which will examine cost drivers in the energy sector and identify measures to enhance affordability of energy for households and for businesses. Deputies will be aware that we have brought in targeted measures in what is an international crisis in order to support 470,000 households. Those measures included extending the fuel allowance to those on the working family payment scheme. This is a direct payment to households. Insofar as retrofitting is concerned, 250,000 homes have been retrofitted, bringing about permanent savings for families. We are targeting a further 73,000 this year with grant offerings that we recently changed. There is a major role to be played by solar and battery storage, but we need to expand our grid. We need to improve the resilience of our grid to enable us to take more renewables into our system. That is the purpose of the capital investment plan for the period 2026 to 2030, which includes critical pieces of infrastructure, as I am sure the Deputies opposite will be aware, such as the North-South interconnector. The latter is a critical piece of infrastructure for the island of Ireland that operates under a single electric market. That needs to commence construction on both sides of the Border. That one project will drive down electricity prices for us. Like the rest of Europe, we are unquestionably at the mercy of the vagaries of international markets. We are an island nation that imports a substantial amount of fossil fuel, but, thankfully, now we are seeing well over 40% of our electricity being generated through the use of renewables. In March, 49% of our electricity was generated through renewables. There is 8 GW of capacity of renewables within our system. Ireland is the number one country in Europe for the integration of renewables into its energy system. Price reductions take time to pass on. There are families out there who are struggling to meet energy bills. That is why any supports we bring forward need to be targeted. That is why I have also amended the grants to bring forward a retrofitting passport to break down the grants and make them more accessible, particularly to middle-income families. We have seen 29,000 applications in quarter 1 of this year - a 189% increase on the same quarter last year. That is significant. With the warmer homes scheme, which is 100% grant-aided for low-income families and those at risk of energy poverty, we have managed to retrofit 34,000 homes and are targeting 12,000 this year alone. These are very targeted measures, most of which are paid through the carbon tax which the proposing party opposed. It is the right of those opposite to oppose this, but they have never indicated how the gap will be filled. What I have outlined are real measures that would protect against further price shocks and crises, but what is really within our grasp is that acceleration of the delivery of additional renewables into our system, including more onshore wind and solar. In only 11 years, we have gone from 2 MW of solar integrated into our grid to 2,553 MW being integrated into it as of last month. The acceleration of delivery is happening. There is still, however, the issue of our reliance on gas, particularly imported gas. Approximately 20% of the gas that we use comes from the Corrib field. The remainder is imported. Unquestionably, there are costs associated with that. What drives me is ensuring that we get energy prices down for households and businesses. That is why business support grants are important, particularly to enable businesses to retrofit but also to switch to renewable forms of energy. On offshore renewables, Deputies opposite will be aware that the five east-coast schemes still remain in planning. From my engagement with the offshore renewable electricity support scheme, ORESS, 1 developers, I can tell the House that we expect at least two of those to come through planning toward the end of this year. That will mean that we will be able to commence construction by 2030. The original plan was that they would be electrified and that 5 GW of offshore renewables would be integrated into our system by 2030. That will not happen. I have been very honest with people. What we need to see is construction of that offshore wind resource, and to scale that up. Whilst our target is 80% renewables by 2030, our projections are between 68% and 72% by the end of the decade, but we can bridge the gap. Battery storage is critical, particularly long-duration storage. Only yesterday, Euronews highlighted a Eurostat report which shows that is in the top four countries within the European Union for long-duration battery storage within our system, and that has expanded greatly. That is important because Deputies, both in government and across the House, look at curtailment of renewable energy resources of sometimes up to 16%. The more battery storage we have within our system, the more we can deploy that energy at the appropriate time. We are seeing now approximately 1.2 GW of battery storage connected within our grid. We are also seeing a rooftop revolution when it comes to solar panels on houses. People are accessing the grants that Deputy Kenny mentioned at an accelerated rate. Savings of approximately €1,500 per year can be obtained by households that install solar photovoltaic panels on their roofs. I would like to see more of that being done by businesses. I appreciate that the Bill has been tabled and that Deputy Daly and colleagues went to some effort to produce it. The measures it contains are being looked at right now. It would be premature to accept the Bill at this time because the review to which I referred earlier has been concluded. The next phase is to look at the recommendations within that and to make the relevant changes, should they be needed, to the CRU, which already has a substantial mandate overseeing retail energy costs within our system. Furthermore, as the Deputies will be aware, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, also monitors energy prices. It has an important role in that regard. Recently, the CRU produced a report, with input from CCPC, and found that competition in the Irish electricity and gas markets is functioning effectively and is generating meaningful rivalry. The point I am making is that we have to make it easier for people to switch providers - not enough people do so - and there are major savings to be made by households and businesses that switch electricity providers. There is an issue when it comes to enabling the senior cohort of our population to access switching of energy providers in as appropriate a way as possible. Our focus is absolutely on delivering affordability. Much more work needs to be done on that. In the budget, we reduced the VAT on electricity and gas to 9% permanently out to 2030. In July we will have the final report of the energy affordability task force, looking at things like network charges and what we can do in the round on that to drive permanent savings on household and business bills. Fundamentally, within all of this is reducing our dependence on fossil fuel. It is creating more domestic energy generation through renewable sources and the projections for that are very positive.

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