{"id":621963,"date":"2026-09-12T01:04:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T01:04:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621963\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T01:04:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T01:04:10","slug":"greens-call-for-e2-5bn-to-fund-solar-panels-in-homes-and-for-targeted-energy-credits-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/621963\/","title":{"rendered":"Greens call for \u20ac2.5bn to fund solar panels in homes and for \u2018targeted\u2019 energy credits \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Green Party<\/a> has called for a once-off fossil fuel inflation fund of \u20ac2.5 billion in the budget<\/a> to help families pay to install solar panels<\/a> in their home in addition to what it called \u201ctargeted credits\u201d for families who are struggling to pay energy bills<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Opening the party\u2019s one-day gathering of its representatives in Dublin, party leader Roderic O\u2019Gorman<\/a> criticised the Government<\/a> for financing one-off measures focused on fossil fuels while making no investment in alternatives. <\/p>\n

He said that allotting some of the \u20ac2.5 billion to increase the roll-out of low-cost solar panels would help families reduce energy bills and would also help the transition to electric vehicles<\/a> as cars could be charged at home. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis would make a really important step for families now, but into the future as well. Once you\u2019ve solar panels installed you are getting free or low-cost electricity for the years and the decades to come. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re protected from these up-and-down spikes in the prices of oil<\/a> and gas into the future.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said that part of the fund should be used for short-term measures such as targeted energy credits across 2027. <\/p>\n

At a media conference, O\u2019Gorman said the key themes for the party as the D\u00e1il returned were to use Budget 2027 to protect families from the immediate impact on inflation and up-and-down spikes in fossil fuel, work towards social justice and put pressure on the Government for its failure to take action on climate change. <\/p>\n

He also said the party would seek funding of \u20ac85 million to the National Transport Authority<\/a> to neutralise the fare increases recently announced.<\/p>\n

Deputy leader Cllr Hazel Chu<\/a> told the conference that the party would be advocating for a levy of 1 cent per kilowatt of electricity used by data centres<\/a>, which would raise \u20ac84 million in revenue. <\/p>\n

\u201cData centres consume 23 per cent of metered electricity and that is set to rise to 30 per cent by 2030,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

Chu also called for a moratorium on the building of new data centres.<\/p>\n

Cllr Janet Horner said the party would be participating in protests during US president Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s visit to Ireland over the weekend. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen Trump drag women\u2019s rights backwards in the US. We have fought in Ireland for repeal, we fought for expansion of abortion rights,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve turned out on the streets day in, day out to protest a genocide in Palestine … while we have seen the Trump regime champion Netanyahu\u2019s genocide.\u201d<\/p>\n

Senator Malcolm Noonan<\/a> said hundreds of thousands of hectares had been destroyed by wildfires in Europe during the summer. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a huge loss of agricultural production, not just in Europe but also here in Ireland, where we\u2019ve had extreme levels of drought and which has had a knock-on effect on water quality. It has a knock-on effect on livestock, but it has a knock-on effect on farm incomes as well,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

He said another consequence was a cost-of-food<\/a> crisis, which needed to be addressed. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Green Party has called for a once-off fossil fuel inflation fund of \u20ac2.5 billion in the budget…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":621964,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[246,61,60,7038,82],"class_list":["post-621963","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-politics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621963","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=621963"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/621963\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/621964"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=621963"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=621963"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=621963"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}