Energy and Fuel Costs: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-29 ============================================================ Gareth Scahill (FG), Nominated by the Taoiseach The lesson there is to never go second. I thank the Senator. I fully support the motion. I will not go over a lot of the points that have been mentioned, but I want to highlight that this motion is targeting assistance for vulnerable households, which is something that I have regularly raised in the House. I have been a big proponent of the warmer homes scheme and ensuring that those who need it most - those who are getting the assistance that many of my colleagues have mentioned - get the actual retrofitting that they need in their homes. I have spent a lot of my time in the House focusing on skill sets not being there on the ground to deliver this in a timely manner. We know that there are individuals eligible for these schemes all over the country who are waiting 24 and 36 months for these schemes to be put in place. Over the last couple of days, I have had a number of meetings and I have found that the actual delays to the system is not actually the lack of skill sets on the ground. The contractors are out there. They are bringing in people to do this retrofitting, where needed, and sourcing materials, where needed. However, the system that the SEAI has in place for assessing the properties that are eligible and for awarding the contracts for retrofitting them to contractors is not working and takes 12 to 18 months. This means that some of the most susceptible people in our economy, who should be benefiting from these schemes for which the Government is putting money in place and that is available to draw down, are not getting them in a timely manner and are looking at a second and third winter without having this retrofitting in place. If the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, was actually here tonight, then I would be calling for a review of the system so that the money that the Government is allocating to these schemes can be spent. Another issue that I have raised on numerous occasions in the House is that of PV solar panels for medically vulnerable individuals. I welcome the news from the SEAI this afternoon and from the Minister's Department that batteries will be included in this scheme. I have called for assistive technologies to be available and for that money to be used for this scheme and for the house adaptation grants, and I welcome the fact that these batteries are going to be in place in that regard moving forward. We are doing a hundred things really well but one thing that probably has not been mentioned here is the road transport support scheme. Last year, the Department of Transport paid €6.9 million to the Department of Education and Youth to support school bus providers who were in three-, four- or five-year contracts to deliver a service. They entered those contracts before the price of fuel increased to the level it is at today. I would like that we look at this matter. We have called for that within my party. I hope that the Minister for Transport has heard that call because the bus drivers have never taken to the streets. They have continued to provide a school support service throughout this crisis. We want to ensure that all of our kids continue to get to school during this crisis in the winter ahead, so I hope that something will be done in relation to that. The Cathaoirleach was not here but I was docked a few minutes beforehand. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-09-29/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-29