Electricity Supply: Motion
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-30
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Colm Brophy (FG), Dublin South-West

I am sorry, I did not interrupt the Senator so please, a little courtesy.
As early as budget 2026, the Government has been putting in place measures to help households faced with increasing energy costs. The measures in the budget included an extension of the 9% VAT rate currently applied to gas and electricity saving households up to €100 per year. It is part of the Government recognising that we want to put permanent solutions in place, not gimmicks. The Opposition loves a bit of gimmickry but we want permanent solutions. There were also enhanced social protection payments, including an increase to the fuel allowance rate to €38 per week and an expansion in the eligibility rules, and a record allocation of €640 million for the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, retrofit schemes, allowing us to target 73,000 home energy upgrades this year. Being able to access this is really impacting households on a daily basis. It includes €340 million for the warmer homes scheme, which provides fully funded upgrades for those in energy poverty.
I also wish to note the range of protections 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. Suppliers will not disconnect customers that engage with them. The Minister has engaged with the four biggest energy retailers in recent months to ensure that hardship funds and focused measures are in place for any customers in difficulty. In addition, the Department of Social Protection can provide support through the additional needs payment to help households meet expenses, including those who face difficulties with fuel bills.
I fully share the concerns of Senators about the problem of electricity supplies to households and businesses being interrupted by storms and other adverse weather events.
In January 2025, our electricity network suffered unprecedented levels of damage from Storm Éowyn. The electricity supply for thousands of homes and businesses was interrupted for periods ranging from hours to a week or more. This had significant negative impacts for these electricity users ranging from disruption and discomfort to hardship and significant risks to the most vulnerable customers, but thanks to the outstanding efforts of the grid companies, ESB Networks and EirGrid and a range of other public bodies, the supplies were restored quickly, and the effects of the interruptions were mitigated.
The Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment met regularly with the responders and took steps to ensure that lessons for the response to future storms would be identified and put into effect.
The network companies enhanced their winter preparedness plans for 2026 and beyond, developing contingency plans and stockpiling key supplies to respond to storms. A key risk from storms is that trees will fall and damage electricity lines. ESB Networks already takes preventative action by clearing corridors around lines when they pass through forests. The Minister, Deputy O’Brien, is bringing forward legislation to enhance their powers to clear these corridors through forests.
The Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill is being progressed by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment as part of a wider programme of work to strengthen the resilience of Ireland’s electricity network in the context of climate change and increasingly severe storm events. The overarching objective is to ensure that overhead electricity networks and forestry can coexist in a manner that delivers a secure, reliable and climate-resilient electricity supply for homes, businesses and communities across our country.
The price review 6 grid investment programme was approved by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities in December 2025. It approves an investment of up to €18.9 billion in our electricity grid over the coming five years. This represents the largest ever investment in our grid and includes significantly increased spending on asset management, underground cables and the replacement of ageing overhead lines and poles. This investment is critical in order that we can maintain a fit-for-purpose grid and have the strength to reduce the potential for outages.
Price review 6 approves nearly €990 million of investment to improve storm resilience, building on the winter 2025 grid resilience plan to implement lessons learned from Storm Éowyn. This will enable ESB Networks to improve the robustness of its network planning, customer service, vulnerable customer protection, organisational resilience and storm damage repair works. The Government is supporting the price review 6 investment programme by providing an unprecedented €3.5 billion equity investment in EirGrid and ESB. This will allow EirGrid and ESB to finance their €18.9 billion investment at the lowest possible cost.
I and my colleagues in government believe that this approach of minimising the extent of power outages as a result of storms by preparing better bases and investing in the resilience of the system is the best way to limit the negative effects on households and businesses.
The motion calls on electricity suppliers to mitigate the effect on households and businesses of supply interruptions by crediting affected customers for their standing charges during the period of supply interruption. The benefit for the affected customers would be relatively small. Standing charges for households are of the order of €250 per annum. In addition, the proposed change would require a completely new form of regulation in the electricity market.
The electricity and gas retail markets in Ireland operate within a European Union regulatory regime wherein electricity and gas markets are commercial and liberalised. Price setting by electricity suppliers, including standing charges, is a commercial and operational matter for the companies concerned. Each company has its own different approach to pricing decisions over time, in accordance with factors such as their overall company strategic direction and developments in their cost base.
The cost of investing in, maintaining and operating the grid is recovered through network charges levied by ESB Networks and EirGrid on electricity suppliers. These network charges are regulated by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities to ensure that they are as low as possible and represent value for money. Electricity suppliers recover the wholesale cost of electricity, network charges and other system and supply costs through their bills to electricity consumers. These bills often consist of a variable per unit element and a fixed standing charge. However, there is no requirement that the bills are structured in this way, or that any standing charge should have a fixed relationship to the network charges paid by an electricity supplier.
The system proposed by the motion would require extensive legal and regulatory change, including primary legislation. There are also significant practical and structural challenges that require consideration.
I wish to conclude by reiterating that this Government is aware that people are concerned about both energy security and energy costs at this unprecedented time. An important element of security is the continuity of supply of electricity in storms or other adverse weather events. This motion draws attention to this crucial issue. Having listened to the Senators today, they have made a really excellent case. I thank them and congratulate them for highlighting this important area. While I recognise the Department has a very strong position on this, what the Senators have outlined is important. Even if it is a relatively small thing, the significance of what it says to consumers is a very important message that needs to be sent out there to electricity customers. The Government fully agrees with this concern. It proposes that the current measures in place to prepare for future weather events; invest in the resilience of the grid to future weather events; and minimise the cost of electricity for consumers represent an excellent approach which the Government is taking.

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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