Darragh O'Brien: Accelerating Renewables While Easing Costs

Thank the Social Democrats for tabling this motion. It is undoubtedly timely and a lot of this was debated yesterday. Government won the confidence motion, but I just want to assure deputies, there's no one in government, certainly not me, telling people everything is alright. That's not the case. People are struggling, families are struggling, unquestionably, and not just in Ireland. I think it has been recognised it's a global crisis and I would like to address some of the specific items that you've raised in your counter motion. And I do recognise it as a genuine attempt to feed in to the debate and the policy in this area. So I can assure deputies, I have and I'm here to listen and to listen to what's brought forward. I'd like in my response as well to also tell you and put on the record of the House of the changes, particularly in renewables and where we're going, because I'm absolutely wedded to the acceleration of renewables and we are seeing good progress in that space. I would also say just to Deputy Hayes, I'm not responsible for who writes headlines. So I'm not responsible for the media. But you're lamenting the fact that certain things were covered in the papers today. That's one thing government can't be blamed for. What I would say to you is this, look, we all know the consequences of the conflict in the Middle East and we've seen a greater shock in relation to oil and gas prices than we've seen since the 1970s. That's on top of what we've seen in the war in Ukraine, the massive spikes in inflation that we've seen since then, elevated prices since then. Again, issues that are not unique to Ireland. But this government is charged to respond in kind to try to and endeavour to lessen the impact of those cost increases on families and citizens across the country. But we recognise and I recognise very clearly that this crisis for families and for businesses is a very severe one. And that's why we have to deploy our resources in a sustainable way and in a targeted way. And I want to run through some of those measures with you. We've practical supports that were brought forward on the 12th of April. That was a reduction in excise and diesel by a further 10 cent to an overall reduction of 32 cent. Further 10 cent with regard to petrol, 27 cent in total. Reduction in excise and marked gas, 7.4 cent in total. A deferral of the planned increase in the carbon tax, scheduled for the 1st of May until October. Reductions of a further 2 cent in NORA up to the end of the 31st, that's the NORA levy, 31st of July this year as well. We've also, importantly, because supply chains are critical, and these are normal businesses, I engage directly with the hauliers and the coach sector, actually in advance of any of the protests. I've been working through with them for a number of weeks. I met with the IRHA actually on Good Friday and I engaged directly with them and with representatives of the Irish Road Hauliers. And we've now been able to establish a scheme that is very targeted and very much so at the SME sector within our supply chain of €40 million per month for the next three months in fuel support. That's €120 million over the three-month period. Another €100 million, very importantly, in a fuel subsidy support scheme to assist farmers, the very farmers that you rightly speak about, deputy cairns, agricultural contractors and fishers. And that has also been announced and that will be deployed to give real cash payments to assist those productive sectors, and particularly the sectors that are in food production but also in the supply chain that are critically important to that. They actually are on top of additional measures that were taken, like expansion of the diesel rebate scheme. Very importantly, the extension of the fuel allowance. So that's been referenced here over a further four weeks of the fuel allowance. What hasn't been referenced here to fore is that a quarter of the households in the country receive a direct payment through the fuel allowance, because we've expanded that to work and family payment. So you're talking about about 470,000 homes of those who need it most. But if you look at the overall package, I know these are big numbers and you're going to see how they're deployed down. It is just a fact that the intervention that we have made on behalf of our people of €755 million is the largest in Europe on a per capita basis and actually numerically one of the largest too. About seven times that of Germany, about nearly 15 times that of Poland as well. So it is significant, but we do retain the flexibility to respond further. On budget measures, you know, critically there have been a raft of social welfare changes that were made, particularly to support carers on child support payments. I'm not going to go through them all here, but like on carers allowance, the income disregard has increased from 375 to 1,000 for a single person, 750 to 2,000 for a couple. The income limit for carers benefit will increase by 375 to 1,000 per week. And that change takes effect from July this year. And there are measures that we did campaign on, that many did. We campaigned on and were elected on our part of government and we will make good on those commitments. We also saw a broad increases in the last budget of €10 per week to maximum personal payment rates, benefiting people such as pensioners, people with disabilities, carers, lone parents, proportionate increases for people receiving a reduced payment rate and qualified adults. And these changes took place from January of this year. And that was in advance of the outbreak of this war. I think most will understand as well that we have to manage the resources of the state in a careful and in a sustainable way too. But I would say very, we've also, as you know, extended the fuel allowance and increased it by €5 to €38 per week and extended that to the working family payment. I'm pleased today to be able to have that discussion around renewables. And if we look at Ireland in renewables, we got to accelerate it further. We're actually the number one in Europe at integration of renewables into our grid. And it's fine to be critical, and I get that, and that's political discourse. We've also got to recognize how quickly we have moved. So if I look at it in a, since 2015, so just over 10 years ago, 2015, 19% of our electricity came from renewable sources. Last month it was 49%. And actually solar is upticking to about 4% and we're projecting that that's increasing at a really significant rate. I think the suggestion put forward in relation to solar and expansion is a good one. I am happy to look at it in more detail. I have already, as you know, just with effect from the 1st of March, made significant changes to the retrofitting grants. And many of your own colleagues were at the briefing that we gave and I gave in the SCAI in the AV room. And the purpose of that is actually to make sure that we can, that the grants are accessible to people, particularly low and middle, well middle income in particular, because the lower income we can access through the warmer home scheme. I'll talk about that in a moment, but particularly middle income. So if you look at how we've broken those grants down now, that it's now a retrofitting passport and for the quarter of a million homes that already have been retrofitted and actually 53,000 in 2025, that does provide resilience for that household against future energy shocks and reduces dependency on fossil. So in that, and the debate that has been put forward by yourselves and your colleagues here, I agree, we need to actually do more of that. And I do intend to. So this year I'm targeting 73,000 homes with the monies that we have from the carbon tax. And to be fair, the carbon tax is something that the social Democrats believe in because it's ring fenced for retrofitting measures, not just for households, also for businesses. 4,000 business grants last year for retrofitting of businesses to improve energy efficiency, reduce costs. So if we look at the savings that are made to households of up to about 1,100, 1,200 euro per annum, permanent savings. So I think the changes that we've made now in the grants themselves, and I've just got the most up to date figures in advance of this. These figures just came in in March. So since we've changed them, we're seeing now many more people are accessing them. We've seen March 25 to March 26, roof insulation increased on a month per month basis by 81% this March versus the previous March and a 95% increase in heat pump applications. And that's because we've increased that grant to 12,500. And that is a major cost reduction for people once you get the heat pump working in your home. We've also seen a 62% increase month on month comparing March 25 to March 26 in cavity wall insulation. And we need to do more. Now on the warmer home scheme, we've done about 33,000 homes. And what I want to actually see on the warmer home scheme is actually us, through the SEAI, reducing the turnaround time from application to completion of work. Because they are 100% grant dated. It is for those in energy poverty or at risk of energy poverty. And it works very, very well. It is a deep retrofit. There is a lot of work entailed in that. But I think we can improve the timelines. And I'm committed to doing that. And when I see on the solar grant side of things, if you look at where we are as a country now, so over 8 gigawatts of renewables in our grid, integrated in our grid. There's actually one gigawatt of rooftop solar in this country now. Actually over one gigawatt that's not grid connected. But you see 33,000 homes last year accessing grants for solar. And if I can accelerate that further, and I want to increase that further by changes to that, I'm very open to looking at it. Because they're permanent savings. Again, reducing our dependency on fossil. I think by any fair assessment, we're doing well on that. Last year was good. We'll have a significant increase this year. But where we need policy changes, and where I'm open to that, if we can use measures to accelerate it further. On medically vulnerable, last thing I'll say, medically vulnerable now, we've medically vulnerable solar for medically vulnerable people. Those grants are available. We've seen that deployed in the hundreds last year. I want to do that in the thousands. But I thank the Social Democrats for your motion, giving us an opportunity to debate this in a calm and civilized way. And I appreciate that too. And I have moved the counter motion, but I am open certainly to looking at other aspects on the solar scheme to see how we can deploy more.