‘Help is on the way’ with energy costs, Simon Harris says in advance of budget

Help is on the way on the energy crisis in next month’s budget, the Tánaiste has said as Sinn Féin warned of a wave of electricity and gas price rises expected to increase household costs by €300 a year. Speaking in the Dáil, Simon Harris said there was a “number of issues” the Government was “actively endeavouring to advance to provide assistance and certainty to people when it comes to energy” with a “temporary package”.Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty said that one day before the budget on October 6th, “there is going to be a wave of increases on electricity prices” with gas prices to follow.He said these increases would affect a million households and for families using gas and electricity, “the increase will be more than €300 a year”.READ MOREBut the Tánaiste said “help is on the way” through the budget.“We will be weaving a cost-of-living theme through all of the various levers at the disposal of Government across a range of areas,” he said. The Government will provide “certainty for the winter period on excise”, as well as reductions in carbon tax on “different products”.He was “thinking of lower-income households”, he said, noting that “fuel allowance season” would start on Monday, with 500,000 households set to benefit.“But I’m also thinking of our farmers and our hauliers, who are particularly dependent on fuel, and our supply chains are dependent on them too.”[ ‘Desperate times make desperate people’: Hauliers say they cannot sustain fuel price hikesOpens in new window ]People “need to look at the budget in the round”, he said, adding the Government would “reduce the income tax burden” and offer benefits on childcare. He said they “will make it that bit easier” for households and businesses through solar panels, retrofitting and a gas boiler scrappage scheme. But he warned “there’s a limitation to how much you can do” in assisting households “without bringing yourself into challenge with the European system”. Doherty said the Tánaiste was “giving the same type of mantra” last year but people “feel worse off”. He renewed his party’s call for a €400 targeted energy credit. He said when the Government cut the €400 credits last year, households went into arrears on their bills.Harris said “I know you like to blame me for everything, but the closure of the Strait of Hormuz is a stretch”.Social Democrats spokeswoman Jennifer Whitmore called for a windfall tax on the “super profits” of energy companies to stop their “immoral profiteering”. As more people went into arrears on their energy bills, she said, “the profits of energy companies are booming”, with the ESB’s profits up nearly €100 million and their chief executive in line for a pay hike of €161,000. [ Irish Times poll reveals what voters want in Budget 2027Opens in new window ]“This gives some indication of the bonanza that energy companies are enjoying. This is all happening while their very own customers are going cold,” Whitmore said.She, too, called for a €400 targeted energy credit “for low- and middle-income earners, to give them some immediate relief from skyrocketing bills”.The Tánaiste said there was a “compelling case” for a windfall tax operating at EU level. Some companies “are benefiting very significantly from profits, not because they’re enterprising, just because the Strait of Hormuz is shut”. [ Rural home heating oil conundrum – high costs and lack of an alternative from GovernmentOpens in new window ]Labour finance spokesman Ged Nash warned the budget had to look after PAYE workers, while Green Party leader Roderic O’Gorman called on the Tánaiste to stop the planned increases in public transport prices at the end of the year.[ Jennifer O'Connell: My train fare may go up by €606 and that doesn’t include the seatOpens in new window ]