Expanding on a speech to the European People’s Party (EPP) delivered on Saturday , Mr Harris said that with instability in the Middle East set to continue, the focus must now shift to long-term solutions that reduce energy costs in a sustainable way and he intends to engage with European colleagues on this in the context of the new paper called Accelerate EU published by the European Commission.
The Tánaiste wants his officials through both the Tax Strategy Group and the capital resources available to the State in the time ahead to consider what more can be done.
Among the areas to be examined more accessible financing for home upgrades, continued investment in retrofitting, and, as he said in the Dail last week, the need to consider what more the State can do to improvement to the electricity grid without those costs all falling due to the individual household directly.
“We have to do more to help people with energy costs in Ireland,” the Tánaiste said.
“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.
