I thank the Acting Chairperson and the Senators for their comments. I listened closely to what they had to say. It was a useful debate. Even though we all agree we want to go ahead with this legislation and realise the urgency there, useful contributions have been made by all Members about how we should proceed for the coming months and what is going to happen in the spring because this problem is not going to go away in the short term. There are longer-term problems as well, as Senator Keogan pointed out. I will s…

That is why we have targeted and welfare payments but some people get missed, so we need some universal payments as well. We have the experience of that with child benefit. We have three universal payments, or three universal subsidies that are going through. The first is the direct payment of €600 is provided for in this Bill. The next one is the change in the PSO levy. The PSO levy used to be a tax on people's bills of €51 but this time it will be a credit of €89. That is equivalent to €140 per customer, which wi…

I thank Senators for tabling these amendments and I take them in the spirit in which they are intended. Each of these amendments proposes to amend the Bill to include wording around non-vacant and non-holiday homes. The scheme being established is going to use the MPRN to identify all domestic electricity accounts to ensure that payments are made directly and automatically without means testing, application or approval. The first scheme successfully credited 2.1 million domestic accounts, or 99.3% of all eligible a…

I thank Senator Sherlock. The intention of these amendments is to target the payments towards the person using the electricity and to cover tenancy agreements that perhaps include the cost of the electricity in the rent. For operational reasons, the scheme can only credit the domestic electricity account. The scheme will apply to domestic electricity accounts using their unique MPRN to allow the payment to be credited to individual bills automatically without the need for application or approval. Using electricity …

I thank the Senator for her invitation to visit Dublin 7. In fact, a few days ago, I was in the north-east inner city to examine problems with street litter and so on with the Dublin City Council cleanup team. Some of the issues with rubbish on the street are linked to landlords with large quantities of tenants who do not have waste collection contracts in place. I expect they will be targeted for priority assessment by Revenue in the future. That is a message for landlords who do not have such contracts in place. …

The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science thanks the Deputy for raising this matter because it gives me, on his behalf, the opportunity to set out to the House the position regarding the Maynooth student centre. Maynooth University recently informed the Department of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science that its governing authority had taken the difficult decision to terminate the Maynooth University student centre contract. The Department does not hav…

I take the Deputy's point. Although this project did not involve Government funding and was instead funded by a student levy and the EIB, the university as a body is funded by the State. It is clear that the Minister is not shying away or distancing himself from this and saying that it has nothing to do with him. He has met the students and the governing bodies. On the three points made very clearly by the Deputy, the first related to whether the governing body will reiterate its commitment to make sure that any mo…

The amendment proposes to establish a committee that will look into ways in which future schemes may be targeted at individuals who are most vulnerable to fuel poverty or who are financially vulnerable. I like this proposal and I think it is a good idea. The Department has already set up such a committee, however, about which I will tell Deputies something. I propose to reject the amendment rather than the proposal itself. I acknowledge that, of course, it is a good proposal. I want first to say something about ene…

Part of the remit of this committee is that it targets payments towards people most in need. That is the idea of having a better understanding and better data about energy poverty. For clarity, part of the remit of the committee is that it targets those parts.

The committee has only recently been created. This Bill is a universal payment measure. It is one of three universal measures to target the price of electricity and gas this winter. This is a universal payment to everybody with a meter point reference number, MPRN, who is a domestic customer. In addition, there are two other universal payments. There is a reduction in VAT from 13.5% to 9%, and a public service obligation, PSO, levy change whereby money will be paid to people through the PSO levy rather than it bein…

This amendment proposes to cover tenancy agreements which cover rent that includes electricity charges. The Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications has been in contact with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on this issue. As the scheme can only credit the domestic electricity account, I cannot accept this amendment. For operational reasons, the scheme can only credit domestic electricity accounts and the majority of the approximately 300,000 tenants registered with the RTB a…

I move amendment No. 11: In page 8, line 14, to delete “ 192K. (1) An electricity” and substitute “ 192JA. (1) An electricity”. This is a technical amendment. The electricity costs benefit to be paid out is supposed to be exempt from income tax. We do not want anybody to be paying income tax on the money they receive. The payment will not, therefore, give rise to potential income tax, USC or PRSI liabilities for its beneficiaries. Section 7 was included with the agreement of the Minister for Finance to provide for …

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." As we are only too well aware, energy prices have continued to rise to unprecedented levels. The Government is keenly aware of the impact this is having on consumers and the need to take action at scale. Therefore, I commend the Electricity Costs (Domestic Electricity Accounts) Emergency Measures and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 to the House. I will open the debate by setting the context for the action to be taken on foot of this Bill, which will establish an…

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí go léir. I acknowledge and am thankful that the Opposition is supporting the Bill, which, in general, will help everybody. However, there were plenty of questions, comments and criticisms. I will try to address all of the latter in so far as is possible. The general question at the start was why this Bill is so similar to another Bill we introduced recently and why we cannot just reuse that Bill. The reason is that this Bill grants a payment of €1.2 billion across more than 2 milli…

Yes.

I thank Deputies for their interesting contributions. Deputies O'Rourke and Ó Murchú raised the question of nuisance calls, scam texts and scam calls, and asked for an update in that regard. Last year, I convened a meeting of the mobile operators, the head of the Garda National Economic Crime Bureau, the head of the Garda National Cyber Crime Bureau and ComReg. We set up a task force to deal with the problem, which is widespread and increased during the pandemic. The result is not just inconvenience, as it is for m…

I commend the Bill to the House.

I move: That the Bill be referred to the Select Committee on Transport and Communications pursuant to Standing Orders 95 and 181.

I thank the Deputies for bringing forward this motion, which, as they can imagine, is close to my heart. I thank Deputies Pringle, Joan Collins and McNamara for their clear statements, which I listened to and which I will address in detail later on. The 50% cut in the price of public transport for young people and the 20% cut are the most dramatic interventions in the fare system for public transport since Charlie Haughey's free travel scheme for elderly people. A 66 year-old person is not an elderly person anymore…

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." That a lot has changed since 2002 will not be a controversial contention. This proposition is arguably more accurate for the electronic communications sector than for any other. In 2002, there were fewer than 3 million mobile subscriptions in the State, but by 2021 that number had ballooned by over 4 million, bringing the total number of mobile subscriptions to over 7.3 million. What mobile phones are capable of has drastically changed. In 2002, commercial deployme…