A UNIVERSAL electricity credit for households of €250 in two payments of €125 each — one this year and one next year — has been welcomed by one County Limerick politician.
The credits – to be issued this November 1 and January 1, 2025 – are designed to help families manage their energy bills during the winter months.
However, Independent Ireland TD Richard O’Donoghue believes the energy credits indicate a general election is afoot.
“All you have to do is look at the government’s social media to find people saying the handouts have started to try to fool the people of Ireland,” he told the Dáil chamber, adding that “it looks like the government is handing out sweets.”
He welcomed any funds put back in people’s pockets, but added that “one-off payments do not represent a pay-off for the people. We want long-term solutions.”
“To produce a kilowatt of electricity costs €50 and the government has tapped that they can charge up to €120 per kilowatt hour. That is a problem. I have listened to people going into the shops and coming out with one bag of groceries where previously they had two, so a once-off payment is not going to fix this,” the Independent Ireland TD said.
“The people of Ireland know this because for the past five years they have seen excessive inflation. All the government is doing is giving them a small token of the amount of money it has taken off them. That is what they are getting – a token at election time to buy the government votes.”
