EU energy cap will help knock ‘several billion’ euro off overall energy costs in Ireland, says Eamon Ryan

The decision by European energy ministers to cap the revenues of non-gas fossil fuel producers will allow consumers in Ireland to save several billion euro in energy prices, Minister for Energy and Green Party leader Eamon Ryan has said.

Mr Ryan acknowledged that if unrelenting increases in energy prices did not abate, it could lead to households facing annual bills as high as €6,000 by early next year.

In that context, he said the decision on Friday by EU energy ministers to cap the revenues of non-gas energy producers was significant and would protect households from the impact of sky-high energy prices.

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“We’re talking several billion euro that we will be able to redeploy to help our people by taking us from the energy companies which have had excess revenue, not due to anything that they have done,” said Mr Ryan

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He said the details of the scheme would be published and the rebates would be delivered “within weeks”.

Asked about report in The Irish Times that household energy bills could climb as high as €6,000 a year, Mr Ryan accepted that they could rise to those levels.

“We do have to prepare and provide for potentially high bills of that nature. And that’s what we’re going to do, at scale, at speed, targeted as best we can.”

The said that the measures adopted by EU ministers would be wroth several millions to Ireland. He said the Government would also use targeted measures in the budget, and in the separate cost-of-living package to be announced later this month.

He said the package would include universal measures (such as rebates on all energy bills, irrespective of income).

“These bill hit every home and we have to help every home,” he said.

Mr Ryan was speaking at a special Green Party parliamentary party meeting in Ennistymon, Co Clare.

Flanked by the parliamentary party, he said: “It’s going to be a tough difficult two years.

“But there is a way through there’s a way out. There’s a way we can protect our people.”

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He said he had real confidence Europe would not be divided by the war and the consequent energy crisis. “The Green Party is willing to play its role. We are experienced. We have a really good parliamentary team. We have been two years in the heat of the battle dealing with Covid-19. We can apply the lessons we’ve learned in that crisis, to help our country get through this one, which we will do.”

The meeting was hosted by local senator, Róisín Garvey, and held at Falls Hotel in Ennistymon, which has reduced its emissions substantially by harnessing hydro power from the nearby Inagh river, as well as using solar panels and heat pumps.

Speaking before the meeting began, Mr Ryan praised party deputy-leader Catherine Martin for her success in establishing a basic income scheme for artists. For her part, Ms Martin, Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media said the party had made its mark in the Government on climate action, transport, childcare, equality, integration and biodiversity.

“I think the fingerprints of the Greens can be seen all over Government,” she said, adding that the party would priorities those who were most vulnerable in society in its approach to the budget.

Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman said there had been a “historic” shift in childcare policy with the employment regulation order that will see 73 per cent of those working in child care get an increase. He said the had three aims when taking office – of reducing the costs of childcare, increasing the pay and conditions of those working in the sector, and increasing access. He added that substantial increases in core funding – which will continue in the forthcoming – brought all of those aims closer to completion.

Asked about its performance over the first two-and-a-half years of Government, Mr Ryan said its strategies were delivering. He referred to retrofitting, public transport and renewable energy. “It’s a record year for new renewable projects, both solar and wind. We have just opened a new battery storage facility in Shannonbridge, Co Offaly.”

He argued that the medium-, and long-term, policy responses to the energy crisis had to be a shift at scale to renewables. He said that that process was well under way.

“We are on track to delivering the large scale offshore wind that will bring a fundamental transformation to this country. It will give us a low carbon sustainable security not subjected to ransom of the (fossil fuel) power industry.”

He conceded there were challenges in the agriculture and forestry sector and that transport provided most difficulties when it came to reducing emissions.

Mr Ryan also ruled out any reshuffle of Ministers within the Greens at the end of the ear. “We have a good team. We have a team that’s working collectively together in local Government and in national Government.”