SINN FÉIN HAS accused the Government of scrapping energy credits “despite warnings from their own officials”.

The energy credit was scrapped in this year’s Budget but Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan said she received documentation which showed the “case for energy credits was stronger this year than last year – yet the government chose not to provide them”.

The documentation was released to Boylan under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request.

In the previous three budgets, the Government included one-off energy credits, amounting to €600 for 2023 and €250 for both 2024 and 2025.

Last year, households had an estimated energy bill of €1,556 on average, but the documentation released to Boylan showed that this figure rose to €1,877 this year, a difference of €321.

Boylan said the figures also show that energy costs are still €205 higher than the peak of the energy crisis in 2022, when adjusted for inflation.

She accused the Government of “putting politics before people without the threat of an election looming”.

“In last year’s budget, before the general election, the government funded energy credits,” said Boylan.

“Despite bills being higher this year than they were during the peak of the energy crisis, the government has walked away and left households to make up the €321 shortfall.”

She added that a “targeted energy scheme plan” was drawn up for this year’s budget but that it was withheld from Boylan’s FOI request “because the Government claim ‘it would not be in the public interest to share this information’”.

“It is abundantly clear that the government decision to scrap energy credits in this budget has been driven by political convenience, not the real political data,” added Boylan.

Party leader Mary Lou McDonald meanwhile remarked that it “was clear that support was badly needed this winter” and the “Government knew bills were going up and up putting huge pressure on households, yet they still scrapped energy credits”.

She called for the energy credits to be “urgently reinstated to help households through the winter”.

‘Rip-off bills’

And speaking this afternoon in the Dáil, Pearse Doherty said it was “clear energy credits were badly needed this year” and that the Government “had this advice to hand and yet still cancelled the one bit of help people really relied in to pay off these rip-off bills”.

He also accused the Government of “ditching energy credits because the election is over”.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin replied that the Government “wanted to prioritise our resources to those on the lowest incomes and those who would be most impacted by the energy price increases”.

He said this was done by both increasing the fuel allowance and the number of people eligible for it – some 26% of households are now eligible for this allowance.

Martin added that Government “has to get the balance right” and that it’s “not fiscally sustainable to have a once-off package every single year for the next number of years”.

Doherty replied that “your own officials warned you that without government support, customers will pay more this winter for electricity than any time during the energy crisis”.

“Your government had all of this information, yet you still decided to abandon workers and families by withdrawing these energy credits.”

Martin responded that the government cancelled the energy credit because “we believe in targeting resources, as opposed to universality”.

“You must be the only left wing party across the world that doesn’t believe in targeting resources,” added Martin.

“There are significant factors in Ireland that leads to the high cost of energy, and that’s well documented, but the bottom line here is we’ve had a very significant budget in terms of expenditure.

“You want to add another €2 billion to it in terms of a short-term intervention, which would apply to very, very wealthy people, millionaires who will benefit from your proposal.”