EnergyCloud Ireland Pre-Budget Submission
EnergyCloud have published our Pre-Budget submission, and we are not asking the Government to spend more money. We are asking the Government to use the Wasted Renewable Energy to tackle Energy Poverty.
The Programme for Government states that the Government will use surplus renewable energy, that would otherwise be wasted, to help people in energy poverty, ensuring the whole community benefits.
According to the ESRI, over 550,000 homes in Ireland are in energy poverty, and, based on the census from 2022 this means that approximately 1.5 million people in Ireland are in energy poverty; in other words spending more than 10% of their net income on energy bills.
Energy poverty is an issue that impacts every parish in the country, and this exists at the same time as we, as a country, are wasting hundreds of millions of renewable energy every year.
We urge the government to put in place targeted measures in this year’s budget to help with this huge social problem.
In the last two budgets universal credits were used to help with the rising cost of energy. While, of course, this helped everyone, including those in energy poverty, it also spent huge sums of Exchequer funding to give credits to people who did not need them.
While we in EnergyCloud were completely opposed to these universal energy credits, what it did demonstrate was that the Government could transfer money from the Exchequer, through the Electricity Retailers, to everyone in the country.
In EnergyCloud we would like to see this precedent used again, but in a targeted fashion, funded by the wasted renewable energy.
For example we think the following measures could help tackle energy poverty:
- A targeted energy credit to the 550,000 homes in energy poverty
- Announce the future introduction of a social tariff during 2026
- Confirm that single measures for upgrades and retrofits will be permitted regardless of BER ratings and that renters and homeowners will both be eligible to grants
- Support EnergyCloud in our work to expand the technologies used in homes to new smart storage heaters, batteries and so on.
EnergyCloud is a charity with the full backing of the Energy Industry and is perfectly placed to help the Government to deliver on its commitments in the Programme for Government. We are committed to supporting any and all targeted measures that the Government sees fit to announce in this year’s budget.