Energy and Fuel Costs: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-29 ============================================================ Alison Comyn (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach Like many of my colleagues, I am aware that when we talk about energy prices in this House, we are talking about people who are looking at a bill and wondering whether they can pay it. They might be thinking twice about whether to buy the dinner or pay the heating bill. It is just another increase on top of tight budgets in their homes. We recognise that. Fianna Fáil will not oppose the motion because we know and recognise the pressure that everybody is under in the country at the moment. As has been said, much of what is driving what is happening is international and beyond Ireland's control, such as the continuing war in Ukraine and the conflict in the Middle East, which, one again demonstrated just how exposed we are to events thousands of kilometres from our own shores. Telling somebody that the causes are international does not make their electricity bill any easier to pay. We are very aware of that. We have intervened significantly. The reduced VAT rate of 9% on gas and electricity has been extended, while the fuel allowance increased from €33 to €38 per week this year. Importantly, it has also been extended to the working family payment. When the energy prices rose sharply this year, the fuel allowance season was extended by another four weeks. That meant an additional €152 for more than 470,000 households. Those interventions make a difference but I am not going to ignore the people who are clearly falling through the cracks across the country. They are working and managing, but only just. It might be that they qualify for every State support. They might be paying a mortgage or rent and trying to absorb increase after increase. We understand the pressure everybody is under. Something that has been mentioned is home heating oil. For many people in rural Ireland, and even for people like me on older housing estates, kerosene is not a lifestyle choice. There might be no gas connection. In the same way, I have no gas connection to connect to. Replacing the entire heating system simply is not feasible. It is not financially possible. We have to be cognisant of that. As was mentioned, the possible boiler scrappage scheme will help many households, but that is a conversation for another day. That is why I want to talk about the particular impact of rising kerosene prices. It must remain firmly on the table as budget 2027 is finalised. There is another side to this debate that is quite often overlooked. We, quite rightly, want people to leave their car at home and use public transport, but we have to make that a realistic choice. I just spent half an hour across the road today with Iarnród Éireann representatives talking about that how we can make it easier for commuters in my own home town of Drogheda to use the train. It requires a much more holistic approach. It is useless telling somebody that there is a train every hour or that they can get out of the car and onto the train if they cannot find somewhere to park. In Drogheda, my own town with a rapidly growing population, huge amounts of housing going in and an enormous commuter base, we need progress. We need a second railway station and extra parking. My colleague said earlier that they have the same issue in Rush and Lusk. We have to make it easier for people to leave the car at home. The cost of fuel is rising, including the cost of electricity prices if a person has an electric vehicle. The Government has shown that when circumstances change, it can respond. We have reduced taxes on fuel and provided additional support when international energy prices have placed exceptional pressure on households. Our response cannot only be about getting people through the next bill or next bout of bad weather. We have clearly become too dependent in Ireland on imported fossil fuels, where prices, as we can see, can be transformed overnight by war or distribution to international supply. The long-term answer has to be greater energy independence, with more of our energy generated at home and the infrastructure in place to deliver it to the people who need it. We have been investing heavily in solar and wind energy both onshore and offshore. Retrofitting has been mentioned. That is an important part of the transition as well. It cannot become something available only to those who can afford to pay the balance. Some of the people living in the coldest and least energy-efficient homes in poor or rural areas are precisely the people who cannot afford the work needed to improve them. We have to keep that firmly on the table for budget 2027. People understand that we cannot control the international price of oil. What they rightly expect, however, is that we will take action and look at what is really hurting people in the country, and we do. The Government will recognise that and will respond. We have done that throughout this crisis, but we all know we cannot be complacent. As another winter approaches, energy affordability has to remain at the heart of the decisions we make in the budget, which we will look at closely next week. --- 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