Criticism of ‘outrageous’ inclusion of holiday homes in emergency energy credit scheme

The Government has come under sharp Opposition criticism in the Dáil over its decision to include almost 62,000 holiday homes when emergency energy credits are given to 2.2 million households in the coming months.

A series of TDs claimed that the Government had ample time to create a targeted rather than universal measure to exclude those on incomes of more than €100,000 and those with holiday homes.

Their criticism came as the House debated legislation to allow the three emergency payments of €200 each to domestic electricity accounts in November, January and March.

The Cabinet approved the allocation of an extra €1.3 billion for the energy supports at its meeting on Tuesday, accepting a supplementary estimate to increase the budget of the Department of Energy for this year.

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A Government spokesman confirmed at a post-Cabinet briefing that the funding was primarily for the energy supports. The supplementary estimate must also be approved by the Dáil, which must vote to authorise the spending of public money.

The Dáil is expected to approve the estimate through the Electricity Costs (Domestic Electricity Accounts) Emergency Measures and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill, introduced by Minister of State Ossian Smyth. He said the €1.2 billion funding for electricity credits “makes provision for 2.2 million domestic electricity accounts”.

Similar legislation was passed in March to assist domestic users with a €200 energy credit.

‘Inexcusable’

Sinn Fein environment spokesman Darren O’Rourke said his party had asked for a number of issues to be rectified from the “broad, blunt nature of the original electricity credit Bill”. He said the same difficulties were arising now and it was “inexcusable” that none of them had been adequately addressed since.

Mr O’Rourke said these included “people being excluded from the payment altogether, households with a shared meter not receiving the full amount and people with vacant holiday homes, empty houses or multiple properties receiving a number of payments”. He said that “people with holiday homes lying idle for most of the year will now get even more money to help keep the lights on”.

“It is outrageous that these vacant holiday homes have still not been excluded from this scheme,” he said, adding that they would get €600 on top of the previous €200. “That is a total of almost €50 million of taxpayers’ money to keep the lights on in the second homes of predominantly well-off individuals.”

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said that “at the very least, domestic electricity credits should feature clawback mechanisms such as the withdrawal of income tax credits from those earning over €100,000″.

She added that “a levy equivalent to the electricity credit could be applied to holiday homes and vacant housing, modelled on the previous non-principal private residence charge”. She said this would prevent those with multiple properties from “benefiting to a disproportionate degree”.

‘Staggering’

Social Democrats spokeswoman Jennifer Whitmore said that during the March debate on the original €200 credit, the Minister of State said it could not be targeted “because we did not have the systems in place to allow us to target the measure and this would get it out to people quickly”.

She said it was “staggering” that the Government had not learned “any of the lessons or taken on board any of the comments the Opposition made in March”. She said holiday homes by their nature “use very little energy” but their owners, who are wealthy enough to have a holiday home ,“will receive another €600 essentially into their back pocket”.

The Minister told Ms Whitmore that “this is a single universal measure which is part of an overall package of €2.5 billion, most of which is targeted”. The measure also includes a credit for the Public Service Obligation charge and a reduction in the Vat rate.

Targeted measures included the €400 fuel allowance, and the €200 for pensioners, those with disabilities and people getting the living alone allowance, he said.

No clawback

Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan confirmed in reply to a parliamentary question from Labour finance spokesman Ged Nash that no clawback mechanism would apply for the more than 60,000 second homes. Mr Nash pointed out that some of those homes will use no electricity during the winter months, save for standing charges.

Mr Ryan said the payment will be made to each house connected to the grid with a Meter Point Registration Number (MPRN), a unique identifier for each electricity account.

“This means that it is not possible to omit certain types of residence that fall within these distribution groups,” he said, a reference to homes that are not primary residences.

Mr Nash said the State had a sophisticated tax and welfare system and it beggared belief that the Government did not have the capacity to distinguish between a holiday home occupied for short periods in the year and a normal, principal private residence.

He said that on Census night the number of ‘unoccupied holiday homes’ was recorded as 66,135. He said that was a substantial number of homes, even in the context of the €1.2 billion scheme.