Tackling Soaring Energy Costs: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-04-15
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Darragh O'Brien (FF), Dublin Fingal East

I move amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"notes that, the Government:
— remains deeply concerned about the conflict in the Middle East and Gulf;
— affirms Ireland's long track-record of support for international law and the United Nations;
— continues to seek de-escalation through dialogue and diplomacy so that these issues can be resolved;
— is acutely aware of the impact on households and businesses of the recent increases in fuel prices, and is actively monitoring the current geopolitical situation and developments in energy markets;
— affirms that energy affordability is a priority for this Government; and
— highlights that action has been taken to help households and businesses with the cost of fuel and energy by introducing one of the most comprehensive support packages in the European Union;
affirms that:
— the practical measures introduced by Government on 12th April include:
— a reduction in excise on diesel by a further 10 cent (including Value-Added Tax (VAT)) bringing the total reduction on diesel to 32 cent;
— a reduction in excise on petrol by a further 10 cent (including VAT) bringing the total reduction to 27 cent (including VAT);
— a reduction in excise on marked gas oil (green diesel) by a further 2.4 cent bringing the total to 7.4 cent (including VAT);
— a deferral of the planned increase in carbon tax, scheduled for 1st May until October 2026; and
— the reductions in excise include the National Oil Reserves Agency levy reduction (announced in March) and will take effect from midnight on 14th April and run until 31st July, 2026;
— Government will also be establishing a new Road Transporters Support Scheme as well as supports for coach operators providing local link services, at a cost of €40 million per month for three months;
— a comprehensive €100 million Fuel Subsidy Support Scheme to assist farmers, agricultural contractors and fishers will be put in place;
— this package of supports is in addition to the measures announced in March, which included:
— an expansion of the diesel rebate scheme, backdating it to January, to help sectors of the economy most impacted by the rise of fuel costs; and
— an extension of the fuel allowance season to help the most vulnerable with the cost of home heating;
— a range of protections are in place for customers experiencing difficulties in paying their bills, anyone who is struggling with their bill is strongly encouraged to engage with their supplier and suppliers will not disconnect customers that engage with them;
— the four biggest energy retailers have confirmed that hardship funds and focused measures are in place for any customers in difficulty;
— switching supplier or plan could save the average electricity customer up to €500 annually; and
— the Department of Social Protection can also provide support through the Additional Needs Payment to help households meet expenses, including those who face difficulties with fuel bills; and
further notes that:
— successive Budgets have provided targeted support to help households with cost-of-living pressures;
— on 11th March, Ireland agreed to participate in an International Energy Agency (IEA) release of international strategic oil reserves to address supply issues resulting from the conflict, Ireland's contribution to the IEA 400-million-barrel release is 1.6 million barrels (equating to approximately 10.5 days of supply);
— in Budget 2026, key measures included the largest ever increases to Child Support Payments, higher income thresholds for the Working Family Payment, and expanded access to the Fuel Allowance and Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance;
— recent data from the Central Statistics Office's Survey on Income and Living Conditions 2025, published on 11th March, shows a welcome reduction in the child Consistent Poverty rate in 2025 from 8.5 per cent to 7.8 per cent, demonstrating the impact of Government measures to date;
— Government has also established the National Energy Affordability Taskforce (NEAT) to identify, assess and implement measures that will enhance energy affordability for households and businesses while delivering key renewable commitments and protecting security of supply and economic stability;
— a dedicated NEAT subgroup is being established to monitor global and national energy supply, with a separate subgroup to advise on appropriate demand-side responses;
— the Solar PV Scheme operated by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland has gone from strength to strength in recent years, with increased budget allocations from carbon tax revenues year on year allowing for more households to avail of the support available;
— the Government remains committed to ensuring that low-income households benefit from Ireland's renewable energy transition and will continue to explore how best to integrate solar and other technologies into our energy poverty retrofit programmes;
— in the long run, the best way to protect Ireland from the impact of international fossil fuel prices is to reduce our dependence on them;
— Ireland is undergoing a renewables-led energy transformation, electricity generation from renewables has increased fivefold since 2005, the milestone of over 2GW (gigawatts) of installed solar capacity was achieved in November;
— offshore wind capacity is also being prioritised, with the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment, announcing the acceleration of the National Designated Maritime Area Plan (DMAP) for offshore renewable energy, which will identify sites for additional renewable energy development; and
— €3.15 billion of the Infrastructure, Climate and Nature Fund is being provided to help achieve carbon reductions and environmental and nature objectives, this includes funding to the Department of Transport to support low-carbon transportation, and €500 million to the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment to support climate mitigation and renewable energy development.".
I thank the Social Democrats for tabling this motion. It is undoubtedly timely and a lot of this was debated yesterday. The Government won the confidence motion, but I just want to assure Deputies that no one in government is telling people everything is all right. That is not the case. People and families are struggling, unquestionably, and not just in Ireland. It has been recognised as a global crisis.
I would like to address some of the specific items raised in the motion. I recognise it as a genuine attempt to feed into the debate and policy in this area. I assure Deputies that I have listened and I am here to listen to what is being brought forward.
In my response I would like to tell Deputies about the changes, particularly in renewables, and where we are going because I am wedded to the acceleration of renewables and we are seeing good progress in that space. To Deputy Hayes I would say that I am not responsible for who writes headlines, so I am not responsible for the media. He was lamenting the fact that certain things were covered in the newspapers today. That is one thing that the Government cannot be blamed for.
We all know the consequences of the conflict in the Middle East, and we have seen a greater shock in relation to oil and gas prices than we have seen since the 1970s. That is on top of what we have seen in the war in Ukraine and the massive spikes in inflation and elevated prices that we have seen since then. Again, these issues are not unique to Ireland. This Government is charged to respond in kind and endeavour to lessen the impact of those cost increases on families and citizens across the country. We recognise very clearly that this crisis for families and businesses is a very severe one, and that is why we have to deploy our resources in a sustainable and targeted way.
I want to run through some of those measures. Practical supports were brought forward on 12 April. These were: a reduction in excise and diesel by a further 10 cent to an overall reduction of 32 cent; a further 10 cent with regard to petrol, 27 cents in total; a reduction in excise duty on marked gas, 7.4 cent in total; a deferral of the planned increase in the carbon tax scheduled for 1 May until October and reductions of a further 2 cent in the National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, levy up to 31 July. The supply chains are critical and these are normal businesses. I engaged directly with the hauliers and the coach sector in advance of any of the protests. I have been working through this with them for a number of weeks. I met the Irish Road Haulage Association, IRHA, on Good Friday and engaged directly with its representatives. We have now been able to establish a scheme of €40 million per month in fuel supports for the next three months that is very targeted at the SME sector within our supply chain. That is €120 million over a three-month period. There is another €100 million in a fuel subsidy support scheme to assist the very farmers, agricultural contractors and fishers Deputy Cairns spoke about. That has also been announced and will be deployed to give real cash payments to assist productive sectors, particularly food production, but also in the supply chain that are critically important to that. They are on top of additional measures that were taken, such as expansion of the diesel rebate scheme. The extension for a further four weeks of the fuel allowance, which has been referenced, is very important. What has not been referenced heretofore is that a quarter of the households in the country receive a direct payment through the fuel allowance scheme because we have expanded that to the working family payment. We are talking about 470,000 homes of those who need it most.
If we look at the overall package, these are big numbers and we have to see how they are deployed down. It is a fact that the intervention we have made of €755 million on behalf of our people is the largest in Europe on a per capita basis and is actually numerically one of the largest, too. It is about seven times that of Germany and nearly 15 times that of Poland. It is significant, but we do retain the flexibility to respond further.
On budget measures, critically, a raft of social welfare changes were made, particularly to support carers on child support payments. I will not go through them all here, but on carers allowance the income disregard has increased from €375 to €1,000 for a single person and from €750 to €2,000 for a couple. The income limit for carers benefit will increase by €375 to €1,000 per week.
That change takes effect from July this year. They are measures that many campaigned on. We campaigned on them and were elected and are part of Government and we will make good on those on those commitments.
We also saw broad increases in the last budget of €10 per week to maximum personal payment rates benefiting pensioners, people with disabilities, carers and lone parents. There were proportional increases for people receiving a reduced payment rate and qualified adults. These changes took place from January of this year. That was in advance of the outbreak of this war. Most will understand that we have to manage the resources of the State in a careful and sustainable way. We have also increased fuel allowance by €5.35 per week and extended it to those on the working family payment.
I am pleased today to be able to have this discussion around renewables. Ireland has got to accelerate renewables further. We are the number one in Europe at integration of renewables into our grid. It is fine to be critical. I get that and that is political discourse but we also need to recognise how quickly we have moved. In 2015, just over ten years ago, 19% of our electricity came from renewable sources; last month was 49%. Solar is up to about 4% and that is increasing at a really significant rate. The suggestion for the expansion of solar is a good one that I am happy to look at in more detail.
With effect from 1 March, I have made significant changes to the retrofitting grant. Many of the Deputies and their colleagues were at the briefing I gave along with the SEAI in the audiovisual room. The purpose of that is to make sure that the grants are accessible to people, particularly those on middle incomes. Those on lower incomes can access the warmer homes scheme, which I will talk about in a moment. Looking at how we have broken those grants down, it is now a retrofitting passport. For the 250,000 homes that have already been retrofitted, including 53,000 in 2025, that provides resilience for those households against future energy shocks and reduces dependency on fossil fuel.
I agree with what the Deputies have said in the debate that we need to do more on that, and I intend to. This year I am targeting 73,000 homes with the money we have from the carbon tax. To be fair, the carbon tax is something the Social Democrats believe in because it is ring-fenced for retrofitting measures, not just for households but also for businesses. There were 4,000 business grants last year for retrofitting of businesses to improve energy efficiency and reduce costs. Households are making permanent savings of up to €500 per annum.
I got the most up-to-date figures in advance of this debate. These figures just came in in March. Since we changed them, many more people are accessing them. Between March 2025 and March 2026, roof insulation increased by 81%. There has been a 95% increase in heat pump applications. That is because we have increased that grant to €12,500. That is a major cost reduction for people once they get the heat pump working in their home. There has been a 62% increase between March 2025 and March 2026 in cavity wall insulation and we need to do more.
On the warmer homes scheme, we have done about 33,000 homes. I want to see us, through the SEAI, reducing the turnaround time from application to completion of work. They are 100% grant aided. It is for those in energy poverty or at risk of energy poverty and it works very well. It is a deep retrofit which entails a lot of work but I think we can improve the timelines and I am committed to doing that.
On the solar grant side of things, over 8 GW of renewable energy is integrated in our grid. Over 1 GW of rooftop solar in this country is not grid connected. Last year 33,000 homes accessed grants for solar and I want to increase that further. If I can accelerate that by changes to it, I am very open to looking at it. They are permanent savings, reducing our dependency on fossil fuel. By any fair assessment, we are doing well on that. Last year was good and we will have a significant increase this year. If we need policy changes to accelerate that, I am open to that. Grants for solar for medically vulnerable people are available. We have seen that deployed in the hundreds last year. I want to do that in the thousands.
I thank the Social Democrats for the motion, giving us an opportunity to debate this in a calm and civilised way. I appreciate that too. I have moved the countermotion but I am certainly open to looking at other aspects of the solar scheme to see how we can deploy more.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-04-15/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-04-15