{"id":414569,"date":"2026-04-24T03:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414569\/"},"modified":"2026-04-24T03:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T03:48:09","slug":"plans-for-more-permanent-relief-on-high-energy-costs-taoiseach-says-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/414569\/","title":{"rendered":"Plans for \u2018more permanent relief\u2019 on high energy costs, Taoiseach says \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government is hoping to give people \u201cmore permanent relief\u201d on high energy costs<\/a>, by making structural changes that go beyond the short-term cuts to tax<\/a> on petrol and diesel, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin<\/a> has said. <\/p>\n

Planning for next year\u2019s budget<\/a> was already under way and there would be \u201copportunities\u201d to use the fuel allowance payment to help people struggling with their heating bills, he said. <\/p>\n

The spiking cost of energy was being driven by the ongoing war in Iran<\/a> but \u201cirrespective\u201d of that pressure the Government wanted to introduce deeper reforms. <\/p>\n

Future investment in the State\u2019s energy grid network would hopefully lift some of the cost burden \u201coverwhelmingly put on the consumer\u201d at present, he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s needed now is a structured approach to energy costs, more generally across the economy. How do we, in the context of our budget, build that in, giving more permanent relief to people from a high energy cost base in the country?\u201d Martin said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe social protection budget gives us opportunities through the fuel allowance<\/a> and so on and other mechanisms. We also have other instruments to assist the general population,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll be looking at everything and we will look at all opportunities in the forthcoming budget,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

When asked whether that included energy credits, the Taoiseach repeated that the Coalition was \u201clooking at everything\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was in Iran\u2019s \u201cbest interests\u201d to agree to a peace deal ending the war, he said. \u201cI believe back channels are operating on an ongoing basis,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

The conflict began nearly eight weeks ago when the US and Israel struck Tehran, whose retaliation quickly drew in the Gulf region and caused oil and gas prices to rocket upwards. <\/p>\n

The world wanted a \u201cpermanent end to hostilities and normality to break out again\u201d, the Fianna F\u00e1il leader said. <\/p>\n

The Taoiseach welcomed recent changes to European Union subsidy restrictions that will give national governments more leeway in responding to the energy crisis, saying it would allow for \u201cfurther flexibilities\u201d. <\/p>\n

Martin was speaking in Ayia Napa at the start of a two-day EU summit in Cyprus, where leaders will discuss the Iran conflict, the war in Ukraine, and coming negotiations about the EU\u2019s next seven-year budget. <\/p>\n

Ireland would be \u201cvery strongly opposed\u201d to any proposal that corporation tax should be used as an avenue to raise extra resources for the union\u2019s joint budget, he said. <\/p>\n

The EU budget funds Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) subsidies, regional and development funding and a host of other schemes administered by Brussels officials. <\/p>\n

Negotiations between the 27 national governments to trash out the size and shape of the budget will be steered by Ireland, who hold the rotating EU presidency in the second half of this year. <\/p>\n

Landing a deal on the EU budget by the end of the year would be \u201cchallenging,\u201d Martin said. <\/p>\n

The Government was eager to protect a \u201cstrong\u201d CAP in the coming EU budget fight, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s the one major part of the overall EU budget where we derive substantial funding,\u201d Martin said. <\/p>\n

Speaking earlier in Athens, Martin said Ireland would also put a focus on economic competitiveness during its six-month turn holding the Council of the EU presidency, a role that involves brokering compromises.<\/p>\n

The Taoiseach said Ireland wanted to accelerate work negotiating Montenegro\u2019s accession into the EU. The Balkan country had \u201cmade very significant progress and we would like to close all [negotiating] chapters by the end of the Irish presidency,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Martin said his tour of capitals meeting other European leaders was about understanding what their \u201cpriorities\u201d would be at EU-level during Ireland\u2019s stint as dealmaker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government is hoping to give people \u201cmore permanent relief\u201d on high energy costs, by making structural changes…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":414570,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5168,8846,943,5485,37635,5148,895,171749,1523,42,11829,3410,150432,1843,43,5066,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-414569","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-budget","9":"tag-common-agricultural-policy-cap","10":"tag-cost-of-living","11":"tag-energy-costs","12":"tag-energy-crisis","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-fianna-fail","15":"tag-fuel-protests","16":"tag-government","17":"tag-headlines","18":"tag-iran","19":"tag-israel","20":"tag-israel-iran-conflict","21":"tag-micheal-martin","22":"tag-news","23":"tag-tax","24":"tag-top-news","25":"tag-top-stories","26":"tag-topnews","27":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=414569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/414569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/414570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=414569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=414569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=414569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}