Final ‘mix’ of energy support not yet decided, McGrath says

By Cillian Sherlock, PA

Michael McGrath has said he expects Government will provide additional support for households to deal with energy bills.

However, the Minister for Finance added it has not been decided what “mix” of measures could be implemented in the upcoming budget.

Speaking to RTÉ radio, Mr McGrath said: “We have a number of different levers at our disposal from tax and expenditure and different supports that we’ve used before and may use in the future.

“So we will decide what is the right mix, but we also want to see the market responding by passing on the wholesale reductions to consumers.”

He said energy bills are “unavoidable costs” facing households.

“That is why I do anticipate that the Government will be providing support to households to meet the energy bills in the months ahead.”

Asked if support would be provided to all households, the minister said that decision has not been made.

“But we have so far introduced four different electricity credits, which I think have proven to be effective and successful.

“We also, of course, had the reduction in VAT on gas and electricity.

“So that was a universal measure also, but we did complement that then with a whole range of targeted supports expanding the eligibility to the fuel allowance scheme, making one-off payments to people who receive the fuel allowance, so there are different ways we can do it.”