Energy and Fuel Costs: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-29 ============================================================ Pauline Tully (SF), Cultural and Educational Panel Go raibh maith agat, a Chathaoirligh. I am delighted to have the opportunity to discuss the cost of fuel and the devastating effect it is having on people. It is having an effect on everybody across the board but certain sectors are affected more. As we head into the winter and as the weather gets colder, older people and disabled people will end up being forced to live in one room because that is all they can afford to heat or they will go to bed earlier and get up later or sit with several layers of clothing on them in the house, and that is not right. That should not be happening. Carers are adversely affected, especially in rural areas. People are dependent on their cars in rural areas because there is very limited public transport. As carers must go from client to client, they have no option but to use the car. Earlier, there were families in here with children with additional needs. They are all the time on the road going to different appointments and so on. They are dependent on a car. We see the cost of fuel at the pumps. The cost has now gone way over the €2 mark and is up to €2.20, which is driving up the cost of everything else. It is driving up the cost of production and transportation. Our shopping bills are increasing as a result. We have over 300,000 people in this country who cannot afford to pay their electricity bill and are in arrears. That is an absolute disgrace. People talk about the fuel allowance. We should not have so many people depending on a fuel allowance. They should be able to pay their bills if energy was controlled. For homes depending on kerosene, it now costs up to €1,600 to fill a tank, which is nearly twice what it was this time last year. Today, a boiler scrappage scheme was mentioned. I do not know the details of the proposal but we await seeing them. As Senator Collins said, most houses are not built for heat pumps or air-to-water pumps, so I do not how boilers will be replaced. There are Government schemes that encourage people to buy electric cars or avail of SEAI grants. Richer people can afford to avail of those. It is Government schemes supporting richer people to increase their energy efficiency. Everybody should be increasing their energy efficiency but we should not use public money to support those who most can afford to pay for it themselves. The warmer homes scheme is a great scheme but it has too long a waiting list. Therefore, we need more investment in the scheme and more people able to avail of it. As matters stand, we have poorer people forced to drive older and dirtier cars that are more expensive to run. They are dependent on kerosene. It is not a fair setup around the grants and supports. On the road transport support scheme, I talked to the owner of an SME last week. He has ten vans on the road and employs about 30 people. He is considering who he will have to lay off because he cannot avail of the scheme because his vans are less than 3.4 tonnes in weight. Why is there a cut-off point like that? His fuel bill increased by between €1,500 to €2,000 a month since March. He cannot afford that. If there are no supports forthcoming in this budget, what is he going to do? He will have to let workers go yet still expect the smaller workforce to produce the same. We talk about the wars. They are driving up the cost of fuel. Obviously, those wars are outside the control and responsibility of the Irish Government, but the Irish Government is responsible for domestic energy security. We have had Fine Gael in government for 15 years, and we have had Fianna Fáil supporting it or in government with it for the last ten years, yet we have not invested significantly in wind, solar or wave energy. --- 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