Electricity Supply: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-30 ============================================================ Mark Duffy (FG), Labour Panel I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I compliment my colleagues, Senators Gareth Scahill and P.J. Murphy, for putting forward this very important Private Members' motion. While I agree that it is not a silver bullet in terms of addressing all costs for energy, I do think it is a matter of justice. I travel through the west of Ireland. I am from County Mayo, not far from Galway and Roscommon. I travelled through that area to get to this House during my Seanad campaign and drove through many countries, including those I have mentioned and Monaghan and Cavan. I will never forget the devastation I saw. I do not think it was fully understood at more senior levels, I would say politically, but within certain utility companies as well. The response was not satisfactory and we have reflected that quite clearly. What I mean by "matter of justice" is that for families who felt isolated, disconnected, alone and vulnerable in conditions that were substandard, to think that a utility provider not providing any utility at that time was actually applying a standing charge is something that is more about injustice than a financial contribution. The financial benefit for people if we can get this fully over the line will be a help and an acknowledgement, but it is about the justice in making sure that people are not out of pocket while also without electricity. I am a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Climate, Energy and the Environment. We are doing a lot in the space of trying to capitalise on different opportunities that can drive down the cost of electricity. The cost is only one element. If we have warmer homes that are retrofitted and grant-aided then the requirement for electricity will also reduce. That is something that Ireland has been very strong on in terms of the grants and supports that are there for the retrofitting of one's home. We need to take that in a full context when we think about electricity cost. There are other elements that can help improve taking the cost of electricity bills from those most affected and those most vulnerable. We know the benefit of solar and photovoltaic cells for homeowners. I refer to the battery storage and the potential that has to really be a next step forward. In terms of homeowners reducing their bills, buying energy at night and releasing it by day is common sense. On foot of the price of batteries having reduced by 50% in recent years, there is a real opportunity that the next step to becoming a cleaner and greener country, while also reducing bills, will be the investment in battery storage at a residential level. This is something that I have articulated regularly at the committee. I also have raised it here a number of times and I hope that we can continue to pursue this initiative because, as I said, it can be transformative in terms how we interact. My area has some of the largest wind farms in the country. At times, because of high wind levels, there is “dispatch down”, where the turbines are shut down. If we have a system in place and we deploy excess energy from the grid to battery storage at a residential level, we can give people free electricity for their batteries or to fill their tanks with hot water. I know EnergyCloud has done some work in this space. God forbid, if power is shut off during a storm, people's water tanks will be filled with hot water and their batteries will be powered up, which can help to mitigate some of the time lag between the power going and being restored. To come back to the motion put forward by Senators Scahill and Murphy, there is currently an injustice. While not being a full financial solution to the cost of electricity bills, it is something that would help in a small way to benefit people financially and address what is currently an injustice when people without electricity are being charged. I compliment my colleagues and everyone in the House who spoke in support of it. I would like to see it introduced swiftly in order that the next time there are power outages, people do not receive the standing charge. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-30/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:07+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-06-30