I ask the Minister what he is going to do as the Minister with responsibility for energy. I refer to those actions he actually could take this week if he had the political will to do so. Electric Ireland has, as we know, joined Bord Gáis Energy and Energia in hiking its prices. Its 1.3 million customers will now pay 23% more for electricity and 25% more for gas. The standing charge is also going up by a whopping 36%, so even if people reduce their energy use as the Minister suggests, the companies will still manage to fleece people. While families are struggling heat their homes, the ESB is not exactly struggling to break even. It made bumper profits of €680 million last year. Other energy companies are similarly cash rich. If they were compelled to put customers on their most beneficial tariff instead of instantly jacking up prices at the end of an introductory 12-month contract, their profit margins would decline slightly but it would make a huge difference to their vulnerable customers.

The Government is not some kind of innocent bystander in all of this. It cannot just wring its hands as the Minister is doing and watch dispassionately from the sidelines as workers and families are squeezed for every penny they are worth. There are things the Government can do in the form of targeted measures that would make a real difference to those most in need. Age Action Ireland has highlighted that just a third of older people get the fuel allowance and the payment is not keeping pace with soaring energy price rises. It wants the Government to replace the fuel allowance with an energy guarantee that would mean a guaranteed number of free units of energy per month instead of a cash payment. This would mean more people qualify for assistance and would insulate them from sudden price shocks. This is the only way to insulate people from price shocks.

If they were forced to wait for the Minister's retrofitting scheme, they would never be warm. Nearly 7,000 low-income households are now on waiting lists for more than two years to get work done on their homes. They are the lucky ones because they actually qualify for the Minister's schemes. If you are not in receipt of a social welfare payment but are on a low or middle income it is tough luck and you have no choice but to take out a loan that in all likelihood you cannot afford. Workers and families cannot use Green Party hot air to warm their homes. They need the Minister to deliver for them and meet his targets instead of constantly missing them.

I have a few questions. Will the Minister compel energy companies to place customers on their most beneficial tariff? Will he replace the fuel allowance with an energy guarantee? Will he do more than just talk about retrofitting, for the many people who are excluded?

We are going to have to do a whole variety of additional measures. What we have done so far is not going to be enough. We are going to need to do more. On the ESB, people must remember it is a public company. In the past year it was able to hold back on some of the increases it had in its cost of gas because it hedged much of it into the future. Those hedging positions are coming to an end, which is why some of those prices are coming through now as well as the historic further increases that have happened recently.

How do we do it? I also met last week with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. I asked it to come up with further ways we can help protect our people, something it was doing anyway, because we all agree this is an existential crisis. I would not rule anything out and welcome ideas, suggestions or proposals that would particularly help those most vulnerable. We have taken measures that are universal like the €200 credit going in next week. It was correct to do that because sometimes it is very hard to target who exactly is in the greatest difficulty. Further measures should be looking at market mechanisms and further efficiency measures and not just at Government always signing every cheque. It is about looking for ways we can change the market. A way I have mentioned before in the House, because it could be really effective, is to give time-of-day pricing and mandating it so that people have to opt out from it. This would be a way for people to be able to save further through the pricing mechanism. It is just one example. We will come forward in the coming weeks with a number of other measures such as that to try to help address this real crisis we have. The real challenge is we do not know how long it is going to last for. We do not know how long this war is going to last for. We must think in a timely way as to how we do this so it works over a period of time that is potentially protracted.

Lastly, on what real things we are doing, the Deputy mentioned the waiting list for the warmer homes scheme. I stand up and absolutely believe investment in retrofitting and making homes efficient is the best approach because it is targeted at those on lower incomes. On the 7,000 houses that built up as a backlog during Covid when we could not go into people's houses, in the major retrofitting scheme we announced three or four weeks ago as part of our response, we said clearing those and getting them done first is important. That is not insignificant for those 7,000 houses and more will follow afterwards as we scale this up and ramp it up. That is the best way of protecting people. There are some market mechanisms we look at like, as the Deputy mentioned, looking at tariffs or how the fuel allowance works. With those sorts of measures, to my mind, we work with the Department of Finance in a budgetary process to get it exactly right. There will be a range of other measures we are looking at and that we expect to finalise within the coming weeks as part of our overall response.

There is an emergency situation. The Minister and Government need to do much more than just looking at things. Families cannot wait until the budget in October. The Minister asked for ideas. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Age Action, the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, and other agencies like that have many ideas about things the Government could do now to relieve pressure on people on low and middle incomes. Will the Minister give a commitment to meet those agencies within the next week and hear from them, because they are at the coalface, on what steps he could take now to relieve the pressure on so many families who are currently struggling?

On the cost-of-living measures, the vast bulk of them were not targeted, contrary to advice. Equally, the vast bulk of the funding the Government is providing for retrofitting is not targeted. It is available to people who can afford €26,000 upfront to get their homes retrofitted. It does not help people on low incomes who cannot afford upfront funding like that. It does not help those 7,000 people on the waiting list who will be waiting for umpteen months, if not years.

Will the Minister meet those groups? Will he give a commitment to do that within the next week?

With the greatest respect to the Deputy, that is not true. It is targeted.

It is not.

We will spend €85 million this year on retrofitting social housing. Of the €267 million within my own Department's budget, some €118 million is in the warmer homes scheme-----

Where are the interest-free loans?

-----which is 100% grant-supported for those in receipt of the fuel allowance.

There is a waiting list.

In terms of targeting, the measures in last October's budget were deliberately designed to target those at risk. Not only did we increase the fuel allowance, we also increased the qualified child allowance, the living alone allowance and the working family payment.

What about support for the working families that get no fuel allowance?

It is that blend of different social welfare provisions that are needed.

Lastly, in terms of the best way to manage this, we had a national dialogue on climate change last week, focused on the immediate energy crisis as well as on how we transition, with the trade unions, the social partners and the NGOs. This Government is working on a partnership basis and has to do so. To my mind, social partnership has to underpin everything, and that includes listening to the likes of the St. Vincent de Paul and others and working with them on solutions. This is not easy. No country has it easy right now but we will continue to work on measures to protect our people at this critical time.