Electricity credit and broadband
The Taoiseach defended the electricity credit as a necessary measure to reduce bills quickly after legislation, and said the broadband issue would be addressed that evening by the Minister. Mary Lou McDonald objected that the relief was of no help to low-income households, and Catherine Murphy challenged the relevance of the planned oral questions slot.
The assistance we are giving to people to help with their electricity bills is a good initiative. The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, has developed this. We were anxious to do something in addition to the budgetary measures on tax relief, increasing the eligibility threshold for the fuel allowance as well as increasing the fuel allowance to give additional help to people faced with significantly increased electricity prices and energy costs.
This measure will be introduced. It will reduce the cost of an electricity bill. It is a good measure. It will necessitate legislation. The fact that people know it will be credited to their bill is something they will be happy with.
Comment on this
That is no help to people on low incomes.
Comment on this
With respect, that is no help to people on low incomes. That is insane.
Comment on this
On the national broadband plan - Deputy Denis Naughten probably knows more about this than most of us - the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will be in this evening for oral questions. He will be before the House at 9.25 p.m. for 90 minutes. Obviously, it will not all be about that issue but he will take questions and will be happy to comment on that. He wanted to clarify that as part of the work, the Department engages with the legal advice of William Fry and commercial advisers EY on an ongoing basis to assist in the oversight of the national broadband plan, NBP, contract requirements since 2020. As part of this work, William Fry and EY were asked to examine the claims made in articles published by The Currency last week on the funding, ownership and control of National Broadband Ireland. The Department says that this does not constitute a review of the NBP contract as alluded to, but that it is part of the ongoing work of the NBP contract governance team and the detailed contract compliance checking that is carried out by the Department on an ongoing basis. The Minister will gladly take questions from Deputies on that this evening during oral parliamentary questions.
The Rural Independent Group raised the issue of-----