People most at risk of fuel poverty to be prioritised by govt measures - Eamon Ryan

The Government’s priority will be to help people at most risk of fuel poverty, through a set of specific measures to ease the rising cost of living, Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan has said.

Mr Ryan said there will be further universal measures brought in and “advice” will be published to help people reduce their energy bills.

Among the measures will be the reduction of the public service obligation (PSO) on electric bills to zero, as part of October’s budget.

Mr Ryan said the Government cannot “fix” the cost-of-living crisis because of international issues and the ongoing war in Ukraine. 

While the Government is working on the cost-of-living package, it is not expected to include any further financial support.

The Government says it has already allocated €2 billion since October’s budget to alleviate cost-of-living pressures.

Measures have included a cut in fuel excise duty, the reduction of public transport costs and rebates on household energy bills.

Mr Ryan told RTÉ Morning Ireland: “We need to target particularly those in fuel poverty.

“Some of those measures will take time, some of them will be better placed for the budget, where we really need to look at how the social welfare system can kick in, and it will take time to get that right to work.

“We need to focus on energy efficiency. All the (international) advice there is that the next phase really has to be about energy efficiency, helping people to save money with some practical measures to cut the bill.

“So we’ll bring to government in the next two weeks, some of those measures, some of them are in planning systems, some are in regulatory, and there will be a campaign to help explain to the public what are the simple ways in which bills can be cut.”

Mr Ryan said he will not rule out incentives either.

The Green Party leader said they will look at how the country can “accelerate” the switch to local power supplies, and cut back Ireland’s dependency on importing fossil fuels.

He said this would include switching to wind, solar and hydro and biomass and other power supplies in Ireland.

“I’ve asked the department and all the relevant energy agencies to come forward with the measures that could help accelerate and help both households and small businesses save money by making the switch we know we need to make in any case,” he added.