Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe has said the expanded energy support scheme for businesses, announced in the Finance Bill yesterday, will not add significantly to the costs to the Exchequer.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Donohoe said this is because those businesses now included are generally low energy use, such as accountants and pre-schools.
"When we produced a €1.2 billion figure, it did assume that most of our economy was going to be participating in the scheme. So, we anticipate that the slight expansion that we've put in place will make very little difference to the cost because the number of additional businesses that come in are probably going to be low energy users in the first place," the Minister said.
Mr Donohoe said the experience from economic schemes during Covid has informed him of the need to occasionally needing to adjust such plans.
In relation to data centres, the Minister said that they are also eligible for the scheme but said it is expected that it will be "of limited use" to them.
"From a tax point of view and scheme point of view, we cannot, nor do we differentiate between the different kind of businesses that may apply for it," he explained.
"However, because there is a cap in place regarding the amount of support that a business can get in this scheme, which is up to €10,000 or a bit more if you have multiple premises, I anticipate this will be a scheme that will be of limited use to those kind of businesses," he added.
Mr Donohoe said Tánaiste Leo Varadkar will be launching a new grant support scheme for bigger and larger energy users that could be appropriate for those kinds of businesses.
"Data centres are an important part of the proposition that our country offers to keep large employers and investors in Ireland employing tens of thousands of people," he stated.
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He also said the Government is fully aware of the challenges that the electricity system and power system face in the time ahead.
That is why the Government is going ahead in securing additional capacity to help manage some of the peak demand periods that could develop across 2023 and 2024, he said.
Paschal Donohoe also said that concerns about the concrete block levy went beyond the views that were raised within his party and across Government.
After the Budget, he said he did listen to feedback that he had received in relation to the impact that it could have on the cost of building a home and also in relation to very important exporters within the economy.
"I believe the proposal that I've brought forward strikes a reasonable balance. If you look at the cost impact that this could have and the cost of building a three-bed home, it's approximately 0.2 to 0.35% of the overall cost of that," he said.
"And I've also excluded precast items that are very important for exporters of concrete products, so I believe the balance is struck," he said.
"But the other side of that balance is that if we are going to be committing to really needed expenditure programmes to support, for example, those afflicted by mica, we do have to find ways of contributing to that cost," he added.
Including businesses owned by professionals such as doctors and accountants in an energy support scheme will mean "a relatively small additional cost," according to Tánaiste Leo Varadkar.
He said that these "class two businesses" include doctors, dentists, accountants, estate agents, preschool and childcare providers.
"They're being included for a very good reason: they are employers, they are ratepayers, they are taxpayers and they are facing high energy bills so it’s absolutely the right decision to include them, in my view.
"I don’t have an exact figure as to what the additional cost will be, the Department of Finance should be able to provide that, but we think it will be a relatively small additional cost. These aren’t large energy users in the way a factory would be, for example, or a supermarket, but they do have significant energy bills and it’s right that we help them."
Additional reporting Conor Kane
