Carol Nolan demands energy action, condemns 'profiteering'

I want to ask you if you will provide an update on the work of the National Energy Affordability Taskforce and if you will make a statement on the matter. The Irish Small and Medium Enterprises Association has published the results of its latest member survey identifying the priority issues facing SMEs in 2026, with business costs overwhelmingly dominating the concerns. Indeed, 78% of respondents say that these concerns include energy and other overheads, all of which, Ismay rightly note, have been subject to sustained and significant inflation in recent years. Alarmingly, Ismay also notes that despite easing inflation in some areas of the wider economy, these structural business costs have not moderated. I want to know what government is doing to address this issue for consumers and small businesses in offence. Thanks very much, Deputy, for raising this very important issue with regard to energy affordability and that it is a priority for Government to answer a similar question to Deputy Davie earlier on. That is why in June of last year we established the National Energy Affordability Taskforce. Their job was to identify, to assess and implement measures in the short term that will enhance energy affordability for households and for businesses while delivering key renewables commitments and protecting security of supply and economic stability. The taskforce membership includes representatives across various government departments and key energy stakeholders. The first report set out measures for consideration in the budget that we have just passed, so Budget 2026. That brought about a 15 per cent or €5 per week increase in the fuel allowance, which provided an additional €140 to over €450,000 recipients during the annual fuel allowance season. Eligibility for that has also been extended to those who received the Working Family Payment to about another 50,000 households and an extension of the reduced VAT rate of 9 per cent, which applied to gas and electricity. That has been extended to 2030. This provides real clarity to energy consumers and reduces bills for households by about €100 per year. We are also investing this year about €640 million to support residential and community upgrade schemes. This includes €340 million for the warmer home schemes, which are 100 per cent grants, delivering permanent savings for households and the business support grants, permanent savings for those also. This is the most significant retrofitting investment that any European state makes on a per capita basis. The focus now on the task force has turned to the preparation of an energy affordability action plan, which will be completed in quarter three of this year, Deputy. That plan will include a review of the cost drivers within the energy sector and consideration of how the EU action plan for affordable energy and associated guidance can be implemented in an Irish context. The next meeting of that task force will take place in March and it is important to note that ongoing bilateral engagement and sectoral work happens between those meetings as well. But there is more work to be done in that space and we are determined to do it. Thank you Minister. Deputy. Minister, I thank you for your response. The fact is that while some supports were given to small businesses and consumers in general, very little has been achieved to date in directly dismantling, or in terms of tackling the source of the great energy price rip-off that continues day in day out for households and small businesses, many of whom have closed in my own constituency, a number of small businesses due to energy costs. The capacity to absorb these energy costs is just not there as identified by ISME. The costs impact everyone from the pub owner, the retail store, the hairdressers and the farmer. This is why I can only agree with ISME when it says that the survey findings underline the need for government to focus on structural cost competitiveness in 2026, rather than layering additional obligations onto small businesses already operating on tight margins. The profiteering that has gone on is simply scandalous. Perhaps we need to adopt the equivalent of the unfair trading practices directive and the agri-food regulator approach, where we can access exactly how these obscene energy prices are calculated, and why even when wholesale gas prices are reduced, Irish consumers and businesses are so slow to see any kind of meaningful reduction in their energy bills. Thank you. Thanks Deputy. Look, for households and for small businesses in particular, energy costs are a real issue. I agree with you completely and we've got to do everything we can that's within our control to help to reduce that. Now one of the things in relation to real structural reform was, as you know, in the last government, we brought forward the energy tax credits and the state invested about 3.3 billion euro in that. That couldn't be sustained into the future. So instead of that, now 3.5 billion euro has been invested both in air grid, in equity and in ESB to be able to fund PR6. That will be a step change because that's an investment in our grid, in grid capacity, in grid resilience and will drive affordability too. But structural cost competitiveness is something I agree with. Of course we have to look at that and in the need that I've established, the very makeup of our electricity bills is something that will be looked at. A lot of that does sit within the EU framework though, Deputy. Some of it's within our control and we look at and I will be bringing that report to be published in quarter three of this year and I look to bring further measures forward this year. Deputy. Deputy. Good. Minister, look, I know you mentioned the tax credits there and while those credits were welcomed, the energy tax credits, you know, really they did let the energy companies off the hook. I called a number of times for the energy companies to be brought in here. Like the profiteering was profiteering was absolutely scandalous and we were seeing businesses really, really grappling with costs. And, you know, really a long-term solution is needed. So I do hope that this task force will produce proper solutions and practical solutions to get to grips with this once and for all. And to send a message out to the energy companies that the profiteering and ongoing profiteering is not acceptable. I think government needs to send that message. This week there was a report on wind energy and, you know, the report stated that energy generation costs for the state are over 1.5 billion. But yet again, where have the households and the businesses seen the actual benefit or trickle down of that? Small businesses are really trying to operate on thin margins while being bound within an energy cost straight jacket that is making financial viability harder and harder to sustain. I'm concerned about rural jobs in my own constituency of Offaly. I think we need to do everything to protect jobs from Maggot. If you take a deputy, it was in Offaly last week. And if I look at the work being done by Board Namona, if I look at the work being done by Stackcraft down there, new battery storage facilities, which are critical. We've only over 1 gig now, about nearly 1.5 gig of battery storage across the country, which allows us to plan and distribute our energy, particularly renewable energy at the appropriate times and to deal with peaks within the system. And that's expanding further because Offaly has actually been a leader in delivery of renewable energy, whilst really good work has been done by Board Namona with regard to habitat restoration as well at the same time. So it's about increasing the energy that we own, about clean, green, cheaper energy as well, because our over-dependence on fossil and importing fossil fuel. Only about 25% of our gas is domestic, the rest is imported. And we are at risk always to the vagaries of the energy markets. And that gap between the wholesale price and the retail price, and before that trickles down to the customer, the reason is in Ireland, because we're importing so much, is that we're buying ahead, we're hedging ahead. So those decreases take longer to come back to the household. That's why we need to expand our renewable capacity, which thankfully we're doing year on year. And I predict that this year actually will be a record year in relation to the delivery of renewables, new projects, and also the consenting of new projects. Thank you, Minister. Thank you.