The Taoiseach has confirmed that financial assistance will be provided in the Budget for households and businesses struggling to pay their energy bills this winter.
While the government predicts a decrease in electricity and gas prices, it will not occur quickly enough before the upcoming winter season.
Following the last Cabinet meeting before the summer hiatus, the Taoiseach acknowledged the need for aid in covering energy expenses during the colder months and believes it was “pretty obvious that people will need help,” reports RTE.
“The basic principle is that there will be help for households and businesses with energy costs, it will be announced in the Budget. It’s being done because we don’t believe energy prices will have fallen fast enough by then,” he said, reports RTE.
The funding for financial support will come from the Energy Windfall Tax, which has been fully agreed upon by the Government today.
“It is a separate pot to the regular budget pot, it is a particular pot being raised for a particular purpose,” he said, reports RTE.
The Taoiseach believes that the energy credit is the “easy option”, but the exact details have not been finalized yet.
“You can just take it off the bill, it applies to everyone,” he said, reports RTE.
The Taoiseach mentioned that there would be acknowledgement once again that less affluent households may require assistance.
“We’ve had about thirty or forty thousand homes retrofitted already this year which is pretty good going… and I see more and more people taking on solar panels, we want businesses and households to do that,” Mr Varadkar said, reports RTE.
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