The Government are to look at new measures like home upgrades and retrofitting as they seek to find long term measures to tackle the rising energy costs.
Officials are looking into these measures, as the instability in the Middle East is likely to continue for some time, with the Government looking to switch their focus to finding more sustainable changes in order to combat the energy costs.
These measures will look at permanently reducing such costs, which will be explored via the Tax Strategy Group and through capital budgets.
It has been reported that Finance Minister Simon Harris has asked officials to look at these options, which include structural costs associated with paying for energy and electricity.
Other areas include examining more accessible financing for home upgrades, improvements to the electricity grid which would not involve the costs all falling to the individual households, as well as continued investment in retrofitting.
Speaking about this, Mr Harris said: “We have to do more to help people with energy costs in Ireland".
“We know that the war in Iran has made things much worse, but even before that, structurally, electricity costs in Ireland have been far too high", he continued.
“We know that a reliance on fossil fuels can really leave people exposed during times of conflict. But we also know that we have to help people to transition", the Tánaiste added. “We’ve got to look at what we can do in terms of targeted grants, accessible financing, continued investment in retrofitting homes, expanding renewable energy, and improving our electricity grid".
“So I am asking officials to examine whether there are additional practical supports we can introduce to help people upgrade their home heating systems, including hybrid heat pumps or lower-emission fuels like HVO".
Mr Harris went on to say that making progress on energy affordability would be a key priority as part of wider efforts to tackle the rising energy costs and costs of living.
Last week, former Fine Gael leader and Taoiseach Leo Varadkar apologised over his recent comments regarding the gap between rural and urban Ireland, admitting that he "went too far" with his remarks, before adding that he "did not mean to annoy anyone".
This happened after Varadkar had said that rural Ireland is subsidised by the urban economy, and “very quick to tell people in urban Ireland that ‘we are the real workers, we’re the ones paying the bills, we’re the ones feeding the country".
More on this story here.
