Aontú Leader Peadar Tóibín has demanded answers from the government after the Comptroller and Auditor General revealed that only 2.1% of a €190m fund to help energy consumers with skyrocketing costs has been spent.
Speaking today, the Meath West TD said:
“Every day we are hearing that more and more people are struggling to pay their energy bills, and the response of the government, even in the upcoming budget, is to abandon those who still need help.
To find that only €3.9m of a €190m fund brought about by the market cap on electricity providers has been spent is absolutely outrageous. The revelation, contained within the Comptroller and Auditor General’s 2024 Annual Report, exposes a culture in government that will raise fuel taxes, generating billions in revenue, but will adopt a lackadaisical attitude to supporting those consumers even when money is available to do so.
Questions need to be asked about how this situation has been allowed to happen and, importantly, if the government has broken the terms of its own 2023 legislation that requires the fund to be established and schemes to distribute the money to be put in place.
€186m remains in a bank account to help those who have suffered from high energy prices, and it must be distributed to consumers now as we come into the winter months – it cannot be redistributed or given back to energy companies.
Aontú will be issuing a range of Parliamentary Questions to collect this information, and demand accountability from the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Taoiseach, with a view to having funds distributed to consumers efficiently and as soon as possible.”
