{"id":419597,"date":"2026-04-27T07:44:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:44:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/419597\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T07:44:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T07:44:13","slug":"simon-harris-floats-one-off-payments-for-heat-pumps-and-efficient-cars-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/419597\/","title":{"rendered":"Simon Harris floats one-off payments for heat pumps and efficient cars \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Government is exploring one-off payments towards environmentally friendly energy measures such as heat pumps and efficient cars amid the increasing political pressure of the global energy crisis<\/a>. <\/p>\n

T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris<\/a> has doubled down on a just transition from fossil fuels, even as the Government faces mounting calls to abandon its commitment to the carbon tax. <\/p>\n

Harris has now asked officials in his department to consider payments that could be made available towards the structural costs of changing to more sustainable energy and electricity supplies. <\/p>\n

Options now being considered include accessible financing for home upgrades, and more access to retrofitting.<\/p>\n

In a concession, the Government has postponed a planned increase in the carbon tax, which is a charge on fuels such as petrol, diesel, home heating oil and natural gas. <\/p>\n

In the wake of this month\u2019s fuel protests, the Government announced that a planned increase in the tax due to come into effect on May 1st will now be deferred until October 14th. It is estimated it will cost the State \u20ac22 million to delay the carbon tax increase, The Government is likely to still face significant opposition to the increase in October. <\/p>\n

In a speech on Saturday at a meeting of the Youth of the European People\u2019s Party Council at Dublin City Hall, Harris suggested the Government could consider making one-off payments to people who want to switch to more sustainable home-heating systems or cars. <\/p>\n

Harris said the ongoing global energy crisis \u201chas once again exposed Europe\u2019s vulnerabilities\u201d. He said that Europe had to learn not to rely on external actors for its energy security. \u201cWe said this after the illegal invasion of Ukraine \u2013 in my opinion we did not fully learn our lesson then and, as an EPP leader, we have a duty not to make the same mistake now,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The T\u00e1naiste again argued Ireland must move away from a reliance on fossil fuels, but in a transition that is \u201cfair\u201d. \u201cHouseholds and small businesses cannot be expected to carry the burden alone. Governments must help,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis means targeted grants, accessible financing, and continued investment in infrastructure \u2013 from retrofitting homes to expanding renewable energy and improving our electricity grid.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAre there additional practical supports or once-off measures we can introduce to help people transition at their own pace whether that\u2019s upgrading home heating systems, including hybrid heat pumps or lower-emission fuels like HVO where appropriate, or moving towards more efficient vehicles?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"What the fuel protests meant<\/p>\n

On Sunday, Harris confirmed he is now \u201casking officials in my department to work on options as to what Government can do further and to work with colleagues across Government \u2013 not just to help in the here and now, but to permanently and sustainably make progress\u201d.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe\u2019ve got to look at what we can do in terms of targeted grants, accessible financing, continued investment in retrofitting homes, expanding renewable energy, and improving our electricity grid.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I am asking officials to examine whether there are additional practical supports we can introduce to help people upgrade their home heating systems, including hybrid heat pumps or lower-emission fuels like HVO.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Coalition had insisted during the fuel protests that it was not going to abandon the carbon tax. Since 2020, the Government has been committed to an annual increase in the carbon tax, to take it from a rate of \u20ac20 per tonne of CO2 in 2020 to \u20ac100 per tonne in 2030. The rate for 2026 is \u20ac71 per tonne. <\/p>\n

Revenue from the carbon tax is ring-fenced for measures such as retrofitting schemes and the fuel allowance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Government is exploring one-off payments towards environmentally friendly energy measures such as heat pumps and efficient cars…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419598,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5485,37635,895,3775,171749,42,1843,43,70,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-419597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-energy-costs","tag-energy-crisis","tag-fianna-fail","tag-fine-gael","tag-fuel-protests","tag-headlines","tag-micheal-martin","tag-news","tag-simon-harris","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419597","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=419597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419597\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419598"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}