{"id":620783,"date":"2026-09-10T22:02:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:02:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620783\/"},"modified":"2026-09-10T22:02:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-10T22:02:21","slug":"energy-ministers-advice-for-lowering-bills-retrofit-or-switch-providers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/620783\/","title":{"rendered":"Energy minister’s advice for lowering bills? Retrofit or switch providers"},"content":{"rendered":"

ENERGY MINISTER DARRAGH O\u2019Brien has encouraged the public to retrofit their home or switch providers if they want to save money on gas and electricity.<\/p>\n

Darragh O\u2019Brien told The Last Word with Matt Cooper on Today FM that he thinks the energy regulator is doing enough to protect consumers. Providers continue to raise prices.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Bord G\u00e1is announced<\/a> increases.\u00a0Comparison website Bonkers.ie said that the change will add \u20ac177 to the average household\u2019s power bill and \u20ac140 for gas.<\/p>\n

Asked whether there\u2019d be measures in the budget to offset the rising costs, O\u2019Brien said: \u201cI want to be straight with people too, that we\u2019re not going to be able to soften every increase in energy prices.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got to help as many as we can, but we\u2019ve also got to ensure that we really continue to invest in our grid and accelerate delivery of renewables.\u201d<\/p>\n

His advice for saving money? Retrofit your home or switch providers.<\/p>\n

On the former, he said: \u201cPermanent changes that can be made to reduce energy use, reduce consumption, and, really importantly, reduce bills.\u201d<\/p>\n

He encouraged the public to take advantage of state reimbursement schemes, which he says can save people up to \u20ac1,600 per year. He claimed that 284,000 homes \u2013 about 10% of the national stock \u2013 had already been retrofitted in some way, whether it be through installing solar panels or switching windows and doors for more energy efficient ones.<\/p>\n

The minister, who chairs the regulator\u2019s National Affordability Taskforce, also advised people to look at switching providers to get a better deal.<\/p>\n

\u201cIreland\u2019s switching rate compared to Europe is not bad, but many, many people don\u2019t switch,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cThere are savings out there even in a high-price environment that all of Europe is living in right now.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Public transport<\/p>\n

The minister also defended public transport fare increases, saying they\u2019ll still be lower than they were eight years ago.<\/p>\n

The 90-minute fare that applies for Leap cardholders travelling in the Greater Dublin area is to be increased from \u20ac2 to \u20ac2.30<\/a>, under the plans by the National Transport Authority (NTA).<\/p>\n

Adult fares on buses and trains nationwide are set to increase by an average of 15% as part of the increases, which were announced at a press briefing this morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The change comes into effect from January.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re going to be able to do with this modest increase, and in many areas a decrease, I might add, is actually add at least 140 new services right the way across the country in 2027,\u201d O\u2019Brien said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose increases and that additional income will go directly into new services.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ENERGY MINISTER DARRAGH O\u2019Brien has encouraged the public to retrofit their home or switch providers if they want…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,943,10853,61,60],"class_list":["post-620783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cost-of-living","tag-darragh-o","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620783","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=620783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}