Energy Legislation: What’s Moving This Autumn

The Government’s Autumn 2026 Legislation Programme, published on 10 September 2026, confirms that energy remains one of the busiest policy areas on the Oireachtas agenda. With the Dáil returning from its summer recess and sitting through to the Christmas break, the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment has a dense pipeline of Bills spanning electricity market reform, gas security, district heating, and offshore infrastructure financing. Below we set out the key priorities for publication, the key priorities for drafting, and where businesses in the sector should be watching most closely.

(i) The Key Priorities

Two energy Bills have been designated for priority publication this session.

The Renewable Heat Obligation Bill

This Bill  will require suppliers of fossil fuels used for heat to demonstrate that a proportion of the energy they supply comes from renewable sources. This is a significant compliance point for fuel suppliers and heat providers (see our earlier article here).

The eagerly anticipated Scheme, whose General Scheme was initially approved back in July 2025,  has already hit a significant setback. The European Commission had issued a Detailed Opinion on one of the Bill’s key features, a “multiplier” favouring domestically produced biomethane, finding it incompatible with EU law. A standstill period followed, running until 29 June 2026, during which the Minister confirmed that talks between the European Commission and Irish officials were ongoing. More recently, on 16 September 2026, Minister O’Brien confirmed that “Priority drafting of the RHO [Renewable Heat Obligation] Bill is now at an advanced stage and nearing completion.”

The Private Wires Bill

The Private Wires Bill will amend the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 (the 1999 Act) to permit the construction of privately-owned electricity lines in specified circumstances, a change long sought by industrial and data centre developers to alleviate grid connection constraints.

This eagerly-anticipated Bill follows one of the most detailed consultations the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment has conducted. The Bill will deliver on the Government’s pledge to allow:

• A privately owned electricity line between a generator (for example a wind farm or solar farm) and an electricity customer.
• A wind or solar farm owned by one company to share a grid connection with another generator or a battery installation owned by another firm.
• On street charging of electric vehicles.
• A firm that self-supplies electricity (i.e. an autoproducer) to provide electricity to a neighbouring customer where the line does not have to cross land owned by a third party.

In June 2026, Deputy Barry Heneghan proposed a private member’s bill, the Electricity Regulation (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill 2026 to allow for private wires. This is currently at second stage before the Dáil giving further momentum to the drive to remove the general prohibition on privately owned electricity lines from the 1999 Act.

(ii) More Bills

A further four Bills sit in the priority drafting tier.

• The Heat (Networks and Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill will establish a regulatory model for district heating, including a mandate for public sector buildings to connect where technically and economically feasible. This is a notable driver for the district heating sector.
• The Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill will introduce enhanced vegetation management measures to protect the electricity network, addressing a recurring cause of outages.
• The Offshore Transmission Asset Investment Fund Bill will provide the legislative mechanism for a €2 billion Government equity investment in EirGrid to support offshore grid infrastructure. This is a clear signal of State commitment to enabling offshore wind connection capacity.
• The Maritime Area Planning (Marine Protected Areas) (Amendment) Bill will streamline the regulatory regime for the maritime area and provide a legislative basis for designating Marine Protected Areas.

Beyond these, the “all other legislation” list includes:

• the Strategic Gas Emergency Reserve (Operational) Bill,
• the Gas (Amendment) Bill (which will give additional functions to Gas Networks Ireland to support transposition of the EU Hydrogen and Decarbonised Gas Market Package), and
• the Electricity Ownership Unbundling Bill, concerning Ireland’s ministerial shareholding arrangements in the context of the unbundling of generation and supply from transmission ownership.

(iii) Areas to Watch

Several items merit close monitoring in the months ahead. The Offshore Transmission Asset Investment Fund Bill is particularly relevant for businesses involved in the context of offshore wind or grid infrastructure. A €2 billion equity commitment to EirGrid would bolster the financing landscape for grid build-out. The Private Wires Bill, if it proceeds to publication this session as intended, could open new possibilities for direct-supply arrangements between generators and large energy users, including data centres. The Electricity Ownership Unbundling Bill is still at the “heads in preparation” stage. Finally, the Gas (Amendment) Bill, tied to transposition of the EU Hydrogen and Decarbonised Gas Market Package, will be one to track for businesses developing hydrogen infrastructure, given the tight EU transposition timelines typically attached to such measures.

With a number of these Bills still at General Scheme stage rather than published text, timelines remain fluid. The direction of travel, however, is clear: continued build-out of gas security infrastructure, a serious State financial commitment to offshore grid capacity, and incremental but important reforms to heat regulation.

We will continue to monitor this legislative programme as Bills are published and progress through the Oireachtas and will provide updates as the detail of each becomes available.

Click here to read our full overview of the programme.