Europe more interested in helping big business instead of households, says Boylan

The European Commission has approved a €300 million government scheme to subsidise the energy costs of big business, according to Sinn Féin MEP Lynn Boylan.

Boylan remarked that Europe was quick to take action for big business, while households get little in return.

Boylan compared the scale of the €300m subsidy to household supports, pointing out that the money being handed to big business is enough to fund a €125 energy credit for every single household.

She stated, “his tells you everything you need to know about the priorities of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael; when big business comes knocking, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael hop to and get a €300 million scheme signed in Brussels.”

“But when ordinary workers and families ask for help with the most crippling electricity bills in Europe, their energy credits are axed, and they are fobbed off with a ‘National Energy Affordability Taskforce’.

Bolyan compared the scale of the subsidy for big business to the energy credits paid under Budget 2025.

“To put €300 million in perspective, that’s more than the cost of giving every household a €125 energy credit. After so much giving out about the cost of the credits, the coalition seems to have no problem with dropping €300m for business.”

“It’s now more than a year since Minister Darragh O’Brien announced the establishment of the NEAT in a brazen display of political can kicking,” she said.

“We’ve hardly heard a peep from the taskforce except to publish an interim report to provide political fig leaf for axing the energy credits.”

“The human impact of this failure is stark. Since NEAT was launched in June last year, more than 20,000 3  extra households have fallen behind on their electricity bills.”

Boylan noted that compared to figures for the same period last year, there are now over 32,000 additional families trapped in energy debt because those “essential credits were taken away.”

“We have spent years calling for targeted energy credits. The government claimed it was too complicated to set up a targeted system for families. But then magically, they have mustered the wherewithal to design a multi-million-euro scheme to subsidise the electricity costs of heavy industry,” she said.

“It’s time that the households got the sort of treatment that big business expects. But under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, households will always be at the back of the queue,” Boylan said.