{"id":625451,"date":"2026-09-15T15:02:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T15:02:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625451\/"},"modified":"2026-09-15T15:02:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T15:02:10","slug":"measures-to-tackle-rising-home-heating-oil-costs-under-specific-consideration-in-budget-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/625451\/","title":{"rendered":"Measures to tackle rising home heating oil costs under \u2018specific consideration\u2019 in budget \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers<\/a> has said energy<\/a> costs<\/a> for families would be a central issue that Budget 2027<\/a> looks to address, with the Government giving \u201cspecific consideration\u201d to rises in home heating<\/a> oil costs. <\/p>\n

The price of home heating oil has risen sharply<\/a> since last September, largely due to global oil instability caused by the US war with Iran. <\/p>\n

Speaking at Dublin Castle on Tuesday morning, where he is hosting an EU presidency meeting of cohesion ministers, Chambers said: \u201cWe\u2019re very conscious that energy costs are one of the central issues for families right across the country \u2026 and particularly the rise in home heating oil has been a specific consideration by Government.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also said the Coalition is considering other targeted supports in the budget. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re examining options around that specific issue in the context of Budget 2027 and other targeted supports using our social protection system to support families through the winter period,\u201d the Minister said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made changes last year in the context of fuel allowances in terms of the direct weekly support, but also the broadening in eligibility, and that forms the context for Budget 2027. [This is] in addition to other changes that we want to make, particularly on income tax, where we have a moderate package overall to support workers across the economy. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd again, budgetary matters are still in their early days with my colleagues across Government, so we haven\u2019t made any decisions at this point.\u201d<\/p>\n

He reiterated that home heating oil was being examined in the context of a \u201cspecific issue\u201d. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Q&A: Price of diesel creeping north of \u20ac2 but home heating oil costs a more serious problemOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cHome heating oil is being examined in the context of it being a specific issue and home heating oil and its price point has risen significantly,\u201d Chambers said. <\/p>\n

\u201cObviously we\u2019ve made specific changes to excise and other matters \u2026 so we are examining options around home heating oil. We don\u2019t want to go into the winter period if there\u2019s a particular price exposure there for families. So we\u2019re considering options on how we can potentially help with that in the context of the budget.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked about the security costs for the recent visit of US president Donald Trump, Chambers said the figure was yet to be finalised with the Department of Justice. <\/p>\n

However, he denied it was linked to budget talks, as it was a \u201cone-off\u201d cost. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe final costs will be finalised over the next number of weeks as part of the ongoing discussions that we have with the Department of Justice. Obviously, security is paramount when it comes to any state visit.\u201d <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Budget 2027: Will promised tax cuts and welfare hikes be any use against raging inflation?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the Social Democrats<\/a> outlined how the party would respond to the fuel crisis caused by the war in Iran, including the introduction of a windfall tax on energy companies, targeted electricity credits for households and more support for the roll-out of solar power. <\/p>\n

\"JenniferJennifer Whitmore speaking ahead of the Social Democrats think-in on Tuesday. Photograph: Sam Boal\/Collins <\/p>\n

Speaking in advance of the party\u2019s pre-D\u00e1il think-in meeting in Dublin, Jennifer Whitmore, the party\u2019s spokeswoman on climate, environment and energy, said 324,000 households are in arrears when it comes to their electricity bills and 188,000 in arrears on gas bills. <\/p>\n

She claimed the Government \u201chas a wait-and-see approach to dealing with these repeated energy crises\u201d but also that its responses amounted to \u201cthrowing money at the problem, rather than actually trying to resolve it in the long term, rather than trying to ensure that households are resilient to these kind of energy shocks\u201d.<\/p>\n

Whitmore said she will be bringing forward proposed legislation for a windfall tax to be placed on the excessive profits of large energy companies, similar to measures previously brought after energy prices rose due to the war in Ukraine. She said such a tax would bring in between \u20ac300 million and \u20ac350 million. <\/p>\n

The Social Democrats also repeated their call for a \u20ac400 energy credit for those households earning less than \u20ac70,000 euro \u2013 a measure it said would cost \u20ac459 million. <\/p>\n

The party also set out its Solar for All proposals that include a doubling of the solar grants for households; free solar panels for those on the Warmer Homes scheme; the reinstatement of a grant for batteries; and the roll-out plug-in solar for people who are renting and in apartments, and would cost \u20ac300 million per year. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Public Expenditure Jack Chambers has said energy costs for families would be a central issue that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":625452,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,60,7038,43],"class_list":["post-625451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-politics","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625451","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=625451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/625451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/625452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=625451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=625451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=625451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}