Fuel, Energy and Carbon Tax Relief: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-23
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Jennifer Whitmore (SD), Wicklow

As a country, Ireland has never been as wealthy. We have never had so many resources available to us to support people and to make this country even better than it is, yet we still have so many people who feel completely left behind by this Government and the previous Government. They are struggling to keep their heads above water and really cannot see a future for themselves. We saw a report yesterday about the number of young people who are planning on emigrating. We have sort of turned into a country of contradictions. Some people are doing incredibly well, but there is a huge number of people who are struggling and finding it very difficult. There are 324,000 households in this country in arrears on their electricity bills. There are 188,000 in arrears on their gas bills. These are the highest figures ever. Those people are not doing that by choice. They are in arrears because they are unable to pay the extortionate energy prices that we have seen over the past number of years. For people who are filling their cars at the moment with a 60-litre fill of petrol, it is costing €6.60 more for a fill than it did in February and for diesel it is €9.60 more than it was in February. We can see how people are really struggling.
Ireland is a small country and economy and we have been repeatedly hit over the years with these global crises that have caused huge challenges, problems and difficulties in this country. We have had the war in Ukraine and now the war in Iran. While it is clear - I think everyone would agree - that Ireland did not play a part in causing any of those wars, the Government had to rally and come up with emergency measures to deal with them. What we have not seen from this Government is a move from emergency, temporary and incredibly costly measures to actually making our homes, households and businesses more resilient to those kinds of energy shocks. Yes, those temporary measures were needed, but where is the long-term planning from this Government? Where is the strategic thinking?
The incredible amount of corporation taxes coming into this country have resulted in a very lazy Government - a Government that has no vision for the future and is quite happy to throw money at problems and situations but not actually put any long-term thinking into how to deal with these issues on a long-term basis. That is costing us a fortune. In March 2026, there was €250 million on a package of temporary fuel tax reduction supports. In April 2026, there was €505 million. Post-Ukraine, we had a €2.7 billion package in mid-2022 to tackle rising energy costs. The lump sum energy payments that were made in 2022 cost €1.3 billion. These were untargeted measures. I repeatedly was very critical of the untargeted approach that the previous Government took, essentially putting something like €100 million into the electricity meters of holiday homes. The then Government gave people who already had two homes €100 million in taxpayers' money. In 2023, those energy payments cost over €1 billion. In 2024, it was €500 million. Billions have been spent post-Ukraine on short-term relief. We are now seeing billions being spent post-Iran.
What the Government needed to do at that time post-Ukraine was not just hand over public money as an emergency measure. Rather, it needed to look at the country as a whole and ask, "How do we make ourselves more resilient?" The global energy shocks will continue and we are far from immune. We are incredibly reliant on fossil fuels and the global energy market. What the Government never said was, "How can we actually move away from fossil fuels? How can we make our homes resilient? How can we make sure that if something happens in the Middle East or in Ukraine, it is not a household in Portumna or Rathdrum that is paying for it? How can we ensure that our communities are protected?"
The Social Democrats have continually called for longer-term focus from the Government. We have our solar for all plan. One million homes in Ireland are suitable for solar panels. If those homes had solar panels, they could reduce their energy cost by €400 or €500 per year. That would be game-changing for so many households. We have repeatedly called for more grants and better supports because solar panels are still far too costly for far too many people. In fact, I first raised this in 2022 after the war in Ukraine. I asked the then Government to, please, focus on solar. I could not understand why that Government was so blind to the financial, climate and societal benefits of solar panels and making sure that houses were resilient. Yet it did nothing. In fact, it was pulling grants from people. It took away the battery storage grants that were available. It pulled support from people. That is why we are in the situation we are in now. We have a Government that has far too much money and is wasting it and is not thinking through. It seems not to care about the next five and ten years. It is just throwing money at problems. I remind the Government that it is not its money; it is the public's money. People expect it to be prudent with that money and to use it in a responsible manner, but the Government is not doing that.
There are many measures, such as the solar plan the Social Democrats have come up with, that would support people, but the Government is ignoring them. We have called for an energy windfall tax similar to what was implemented after the Ukraine war but I cannot see any advocacy for that at a European level. There are alternatives to the home heating oil crisis that people are facing at the moment. There are alternative technologies that could be utilised.
However, the Government is moving so slowly on them, allowing people to face extortionate rises in prices. The Government has no vision and is completely tone deaf to what is going on in people's lives.
I want to make a point about the cost-of-living crisis that people are facing at the moment and how tone deaf the Government is. It put forward this €100 voucher for 16-year-olds. That is simply a public relations stunt. That is all that is. A woman with four children contacted me yesterday. Both she and her husband work. However, like many people in this country who work really hard, they are finding it very difficult to keep their heads above water. She texted me and asked, "Are they actually serious about this credit?" Her daughter has teeth erupting from the roof of her mouth. She is in constant daily pain with it and it will be three years before she sees an orthodontist or else this family can fork out €5,500 to get it done privately. The Government is completely tone deaf and does not understand the struggles that people are facing. It does not seem to understand where it is wasting money. It is not acceptable to have a teenager in daily pain because dental services are not being provided in her in her locality. What family has €5,500 to fork out on orthodontics? That is an incredible amount of money. I ask the Minister of State to bring this message back to the Government. The money it is wasting now it is not its money; it is public money and we need it to support communities, support people and spend it wisely.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:49+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-23