Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

recognises that Ireland has some of the most expensive electricity prices in the European Union (EU), two-thirds higher than the average, with the typical Irish household paying nearly €700 more per year;

regrets that:

— the Government refused to apply a stronger, more effective windfall tax which tackled profits when they were at their peak post the Russian invasion of Ukraine;

— decades of successive Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green led Governments have failed to invest in renewable energy, leaving the State over-reliant on dirty and expensive fossil fuel imports, energy insecure and exposed to the vagaries of the international market; and

— the Government has created an energy market in which profit maximisation trumps affordable pricing;

agrees that Government inaction is at the heart of Ireland's rip-off prices; and

calls on the Government to:

— overhaul the electricity market's regulatory regime, including providing the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) with new powers to monitor and regulate standing charges, hedging practices and anti-competitive behaviour, alongside increased reporting responsibilities to enhance transparency and accountability;

— provide a reformed mandate to the CRU, which prioritises energy affordability for consumers;

— make electricity more affordable by breaking the link between wholesale gas and electricity prices;

— make the transition fairer by redistributing and restructuring network charges;

— expand community and domestic ownership of renewables through increased targets, funding and supports;

— introduce a fairer retrofit plan, with increased funding and radical reform of the Government's current regressive retrofitting and Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Scheme, in order to target those who need it most coupled with an accessible, affordable and efficiently tiered, area-based schemes for retrofitting and Solar PV and a dedicated fund for the retrofitting of solid fuel homes;

— depart from its punitive approach that punishes ordinary workers and families, pricing them out of schemes and locking them out of the benefits of the transition to net zero, including a commitment to no further increases to the carbon tax;

— significantly increase supply side investment to accelerate the transition to renewable energy and to maximise the benefit for all; and

— transform our vast natural resources into national wealth.

I wish to share time with Deputies O'Reilly, Paul Donnelly, Mac Lochlainn, Cullinane, Mairéad Farrell and Quinlivan.

The purpose of this motion is to address Ireland's rip-off electricity costs. The harsh reality that confronts us is stark. Since this Government came to power in 2020, real wages have fallen, the value of pensions has decreased and people are poorer. Despite billions of euro in surpluses, Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party remain seemingly indifferent to the plight of countless people who are barely scraping by. Just like the crises in housing and health will not be solved under this Government, neither will the crisis relating to the cost of living.

Over the past two years in particular, the energy crisis in Europe has laid bare utter dysfunction that defines Ireland's energy market. Prices continue to soar and people continue to suffer. All the while, energy companies make off into the sunset with surging profits.

The Government protests that the reasons for this are beyond its control. However, the opposite is the case. Government inaction and incompetence contributes directly to this crisis. Decades of mismanagement, bad planning and excessive liberalisation have created this mess. Under the watch of successive Governments, Ireland's electricity prices have gone from some of the lowest in Europe to some of the highest. The cost of this for ordinary workers, families and small businesses far outstrips the European average. In fact, the average household is paying a staggering €700 more for electricity than our EU neighbours. We are out of step with the rest of the EU. The Government repeatedly told people that relief was just around the corner and that prices would eventually fall. However, the reality is that energy prices have fallen much more slowly in Ireland than in other EU states. Prices remain 70% higher than before the energy crisis hit. The number of customers in arrears has skyrocketed and nearly 500,000 households cannot afford to pay their energy bills. Unsurprisingly, energy poverty remains at record levels.

This Government simply has not done enough to protect ordinary workers, families and small businesses. It has resisted progressive reforms at every turn. This is exemplified by its long-held position to refuse to tax the windfall profits of electricity companies. They moved only when Europe moved.

My party's motion this evening seeks to right these wrongs. We in Sinn Féin have never denied that the reasons for Ireland's high electricity costs are complex and multifaceted. What we dispute, however, is that they are solely the result of war in Ukraine and that they represent an intractable problem. There are solutions.

Instead of the piecemeal sticking-plaster attempts of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Greens, Sinn Féin is proposing a package of measures that would deliver the type of decisive and permanent action needed to tackle Ireland's rip-off energy costs. Our plan would allow us to take control and bring much-needed relief to ordinary workers, households and businesses. First and foremost, Sinn Féin would work to fundamentally reorganise the electricity market bolstering families and workers rather than the profits of a handful of corporations.

We would deliver energy security and independence built on a foundation of State- and community-owned renewables. Second, Sinn Féin is serious about holding energy companies to account. The CRU and the Government currently treat them with kid gloves; it is time for this to change. Sinn Féin would overhaul the CRU's existing mandate by enhancing its powers to regulate standing charges and hedging practices, to effectively monitor and investigate suspected incidences of anti-competitive behaviour, and to prioritise energy affordability in its policy outlook. We would also enhance transparency and accountability at the regulator, bringing us in line with our EU counterparts. Having a fair and properly regulated energy market should be a national priority. Third, we would overhaul the Government's regressive retrofitting scheme. Our plan is to spend more where it matters. It is an ambitious costed proposal to move households to a B2 BER-insulated standard with a tiered targeted scheme aimed at low- and middle-income households. Fourth, we would prioritise the delivery of a just transition via the delivery of a just transition commission. If we are to have any hope of success, ordinary people must drive this change rather than have it foisted upon them. Finally, we would depart from the Government's punitive approach - carbon tax or bust - and instead prioritise supply-side investment that is funded in a fairer and more progressive way.

I encourage Deputies to support our motion.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal, Sinn Fein)
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I thank my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, for bringing forward the motion. It is an important motion that strikes at the heart of the cost-of-living crisis faced by ordinary people. The cost-of-living crisis could more accurately be described as a rip-off crisis. People in Ireland pay two thirds higher than the EU average for electricity, with a typical Irish household paying nearly €700 more per year for it. It is just not electricity where we are getting ripped off. Just last week, it was reported that Ireland is the second-most expensive country in the European Union. Prices in Ireland are an incredible 42% higher than the EU average. Let us think about that. Goods and services here are nearly twice as expensive as the EU average. Are workers' wages 42% higher? No, they very much are not. That is where ordinary people in this country are getting hit.

This gap is only getting wider. Ireland is becoming more expensive to live in all the time. In 2016, prices here were 29% above the EU average but the gap has increased every year since. One of the biggest reasons for the elevated prices paid by consumers, as we see with electricity, is weak regulatory enforcement by the Government. Essentially, people are getting ripped off because the Government is allowing it. It affects businesses as well, including small, family and local businesses, some of which are getting destroyed by the cost of electricity, insurance and goods from big conglomerates and producers. The Government has created an energy market in which profit maximisation trumps affordable pricing for ordinary people. It is this Government that is causing Ireland's rip-off prices on electricity and in other areas too. While people welcomed the electricity credit, with this measure the Government is only temporarily paying people off to compensate for its failures to deliver low and affordable electricity.

If delivering low and affordable electricity is done, there would be no need for a credit. The difficult thing to do is to take that decision to tackle the costs to ensure proper regulatory enforcement, but the Government will not do that because it is a difficult decision that means tackling its friends in big business. The Government does not want to put their noses out of joint or tackle their price gouging. It does not want to deliver for the ordinary worker or ordinary families.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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In terms of the cost of living, Ireland is the most expensive country in the EU. Electricity costs are at the core of this huge increase. Ireland's costs are 46% above the EU average. Our gas and electricity are the most expensive in the EU at more than double the average. At the same time, energy companies are making massive profits. This affects many ordinary workers and families on a daily basis, with many struggling, or worse unable, to pay their bills. Many families and workers pay their bills. However, it leaves them with no wriggle room for any of the yearly costs, such as back to school, Christmas and birthdays. They have a fear of an emergency such as a broken washing machine or cooker or the car breaking down.

A community-based project stated in its report this year that one woman "was sitting at home in the darkness with her three young children in utter despair, with no food beyond dried pasta, no electricity to cook it or to light her home. This is the reality of food poverty in Ireland. One story out of thousands.” Another person said, "“You simply cannot detach the massive profits from the energy poverty and the cost-of-living crisis. They go hand in hand.” Another constituent emailed me to say, "A continuous rise in profits reported by electricity companies raises concerns of exploitation through unjustified pricing. The lack of transparency and responsiveness from both the company and the Government is disheartening. This situation reeks of price gouging, taking advantage of the fact that consumers have little alternatives.”

Sinn Féin has produced a five-point plan to deal with this cost-of-living crisis because there is a different way: reform of the electricity market and the CRU and control of the chaos in the energy market by mandating a stricter regulatory regime. We need a fairer retrofit programme giving ordinary workers access to the programme and making it accessible to all. We must create a just energy system by creating a just transition commission. We need to introduce measures to deal with investment in our electricity grid, which is underfunded and struggling to keep up. We also have a planning system that is not fit for purpose. That will be addressed by Sinn Féin. The Government's one-off sticking plasters are not good enough. We need a real, seismic shift towards real, sustainable change for good.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister is a TD like the rest of us. I like to believe that he is speaking to his constituents like the rest of us. They are facing this impossible burden, especially people who struggle to pay their rents, mortgages and bills every week. The increased cost of electricity and gas is an impossible burden. Our small businesses face exactly the same burden.

This did not happen out of nowhere. It was intentional Government policy that whenever EU liberalisation rules kicked in, nobody embraced privatisation more than the Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael governments we had in this country. They approached it with absolute relish. They would have made Margaret Thatcher blush. We went from having some of the cheapest, if not the cheapest, electricity prices in all of Europe to today being the most expensive place to have electricity in all of Europe. That is the impact of intentional Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael government policies.

It did not stop there. When it came to challenging the major businesses that have made huge profits on the backs of our people, and took huge advantage of this crisis and the invasion of Ukraine, again and again we asked the Government when it would bring in a windfall tax. Again and again, it resisted until finally the European Commission forced it to do so. Still, it was a limited version - too little, too late. The Government is soft on those who profit on the backs of our people. It has allowed these companies to emerge from the privatisation agenda and has not curtailed them. The motion tabled by Deputy O'Rourke is about dealing with that light-touch regulation and with the fact that communities want to develop renewable energy projects but cannot do so because they cannot access the grid. They cannot afford to do it. The whole game is stacked in favour of those who profit on the backs of our people. This happened intentionally. This continues intentionally and deliberately.

The Government has a five-point plan and detailed policy. It asks us again and again for our solutions. It has the solutions but has it the will to confront those who profit on the backs of our people, who push families into energy poverty, and who push businesses out of business? That is the challenge from Sinn Féin. I hope the Government accepts it.

David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein)
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The culture of corporate rip-off is alive and well. The Government has allowed itself to become a doormat for companies making eye-watering profits of billions of euro at a time when people are struggling to make ends meet. Inflation has a crippling impact on families on the breadline but the Minister and the Government are not interested in picking a fight with the corporates who are ripping their constituents off. Ordinary workers and families are struggling but are not the Government's priority. We have some of the most expensive electricity prices in the European Union that are €700 per year more than the European average. While the Government points to external factors beyond its control, and there are factors beyond its control, it is not an innocent bystander either.

The fact remains that there is plenty the Government can do. We have set out exactly what it can do in our motion today. It about political choices. That is what it comes down to. The motion lays out what Sinn Féin would do to protect consumers from these crazy costs. It requires action on the Minister's part. We must protect the most vulnerable from the rip-off culture that is embedded in this State. The regulator needs far more power than it currently has. The CRU needs to be able to monitor companies to ensure consumers are not being taken for a ride. It needs a reformed mandate that sees affordability for consumers as its priority. We also need to look at how to empower communities to invest in renewables and sustain themselves into the future.

We need a proper and fairer retrofit plan. When the Minister launched his own retrofit plan, I was taken with his comments about it being revolutionary. Unless you have tens of thousands of euro in a bank account, you are not able to avail of the Minister's so-called retrofit plan. The people I represent do not have money to spend. They do not have tens of thousands of euro in bank accounts that they are able to spend on retrofitting. They need the State to come in with fairer systems. It is okay for people on higher incomes. The Minister seems to think they are the ones who should benefit the most from retrofit programmes while he forgets about those who are in cold houses, older people, people in poverty and people who do not have means. They are who we will stand up for. They are who need to be protected the most. They are the ones paying the biggest price. We need a proper retrofit programme that will deliver for them. In my view, only a Sinn Féin government will do that.

Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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We know that people are struggling with the cost of energy. It is really important that my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, has brought this motion forward now, in the summer months, because this is something we need to deal with now. People will really struggle, particularly in winter, as a result of inaction by this Government.

Just today, I was contacted by a man in Clifden. As the Minister well knows, Clifden is a place that knows about the wind energy potential of the west of Ireland. One of the things this man raised with me was the exorbitantly high cost of producing renewable energy here, which means that ordinary workers and families are last to feel the benefit. He asked me to look at Scotland as an example of a place that is way ahead of the curve. It has surged ahead while successive governments here have just stuttered. As a result of the lack of investment in and progress on renewables, particularly offshore wind, we are squandering our immense potential to be an energy leader. Not only does this threaten our energy security due to our over-reliance on fossil fuels, but it also means we continue to pay extortionate costs. This was not inevitable. It is the fault of governments that simply did not stand up to meet our potential.

Prior to the liberalisation of our energy system, this State used to enjoy some of the least expensive electricity prices in the EU. That is why we have brought forward a five-point plan to deal with the issue. We are calling for an urgent review of the electricity market here and specifically the link between the wholesale price of gas and the cost of electricity.

When I hold my clinics, people frequently come to me about retrofits or energy upgrades for their homes. However, a lot of the time, people who live in council houses come to me because they are worried about moving towards the electricity side of things when their stove or range has broken because they are not able to manage it as efficiently and easily. We need to give them assurances in this regard so I ask the Minister to take a look at our plan.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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For too many families, everyday necessities such as putting fuel in the car, putting food on the table or paying bills for monthly expenses such as gas and electricity are becoming more and more unaffordable. Costs are growing all the time. People need relief. They need to see a government that is committed to addressing these cost-of-living challenges and they do not have that in this Government. This Government has been in situ since 2020. It seems unable to ease the cost of living for the ordinary worker and family. We have seen energy companies making excessive profits while workers and their families are left to struggle. A 2020 survey showed that Irish gas and electricity prices are the most expensive in the EU. The Government has a responsibility to protect citizens and, when it comes to the cost of living, it has failed to do so. It has not done nearly enough and this is evidenced by the fact that nearly 250,000 households have fallen into arrears with their electricity suppliers.

At the root of this issue is Government inaction or delayed action. When we in Sinn Féin called for a windfall tax similar to that levied in other EU countries, this Government refused. It has claimed it will introduce such a tax on electricity companies but it has not done so. Relief can be offered to consumers and relief should be offered to domestic users. As we have stated repeatedly, standing charges are not regulated and the CRU has no legislative remit in that regard. We introduced a Bill to address this that would have given the CRU the authority to approve any proposed increases in standing charges.

It is a fact that many people who have to spend a great deal on heating their homes, a challenge that is more pronounced for the less financially well off in our society, are those who have the coldest homes. Those in the coldest homes should have access to an affordable retrofitting scheme but the scheme this Government has provided has been described as a wealth transfer by Social Justice Ireland. A more well-off household can avail of €25,000 worth of grants for retrofitting but many with far greater retrofitting needs cannot access basic measures such as attic or wall insulation. In our policy document, A Fairer Retrofit Plan, we have committed to increasing the retrofit budget and to targeting those least well off, who most need remedial action in their homes.

This Government has failed to target the chaos in Ireland's energy markets. It has failed Irish householders, who pay €700 more than those in other EU countries for electricity. While once-off measures might make for good optics, they are a temporary and short-sighted way of taking action on this challenge. Decisive and permanent action is needed to ease the pressure on ordinary families. We have a five-point plan to take back control and to bring relief to families while this Government has its eyes on the corporate balance sheet and not on the needs of ordinary citizens.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "acknowledges the Government's comprehensive response to the significant increases in energy prices for households and businesses due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the significant progress being made in ensuring a just transition to renewable energy;

recognises that:

— across Europe, Vladimir Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine had a severe and immediate impact on energy prices, where wholesale prices reached peak levels in August 2022 that were 706 per cent higher than January 2021, while wholesale electricity prices increased by 463 per cent; and

— Russian illegal manipulation of energy markets was specifically aimed at undermining societal cohesion and decreasing satisfaction levels in governments; and

agrees that the Government's comprehensive response includes:

— a €4 billion social transfer from Government to households in terms of emergency payments via increased payments and lump sums via the Fuel Allowance, Living Alone Increase, Working Family Payment, Child Benefit, Carer's Support Grant and Disability Allowance;

— a total of seven universal electricity payments to all occupied households totaling €1,250 per household; and

— a comprehensive levy on windfall gas and electricity earnings, this had one of the lowest price caps and highest windfall levies in Europe;

— regarding Retrofit Schemes:

— a best in class, socially just retrofit program, where the majority of the funding goes to those homes who need the support most;

— this scheme has led to 1,000 homes per week being upgraded, including a fully funded low-income comprehensive renovation of 5,900 homes per year; and

— enhanced grants for shallow retrofit measures, where approximately 80 per cent of the cost of attic and cavity wall insulation is funded by the State; and a new Home Energy Upgrade Loan Scheme, which will help reduce the financial challenges for many homeowners;

— regarding Renewable Energy Schemes:

— renewable electricity support schemes for onshore wind, offshore wind and solar in addition to commercial and domestic microgeneration support schemes that has already delivered the third highest onshore wind of any country in the world;

— that Ireland is internationally recognised as one of the leading renewable electricity countries in the world;

— that Ireland has already delivered 15 Terra Watt hours (TWh) of renewable electricity, contracted a further 17 TWh, and will likely see another 10-12 TWh from future auctions opening this year or corporate purchases that will deliver in the next five to seven years;

— a clear understanding that building grid, including projects like the North-South Interconnector are integral to the utilisation of renewables in Ireland; and

— putting in place comprehensive task forces that are delivering increased, secure, competitive and clean power for the citizens of Ireland;

— regarding Solar Photovoltaic (PV) Schemes:

— a comprehensive domestic solar PV support system that includes a grant of €2,100, the removal of Value-Added Tax (VAT) and the exemption of planning permission that has resulted in 94,000 homes to date installing solar PV;

— a vulnerable customer solar PV scheme for those dependent on medical devices to reduce running costs;

— a wide-ranging commercial solar scheme with grants up to €162,000 that has resulted in 1,300 applications since July 2023;

— a renewable electricity support scheme that has contracted over 2,700 megawatt (MW) of solar PV to date and will contract further this year; and

— recognising huge success through the delivery of 4,000 MW of either contracted solar or installed small scale solar; and

— regarding energy markets:

— the position of successive Governments has been that competitive energy markets result in greater choice for consumers and businesses, in terms of suppliers, products and prices; and prices in the electricity and gas retail markets have been fully deregulated since 2011 and 2014 respectively;

— the fact that the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has performed a comprehensive assessment of energy suppliers hedging strategies through the electricity price crisis and has found no adverse findings; and

— the transposition of enhanced regulatory powers due shortly from the Internal Electricity Market Directive 2019 will enhance the powers of the CRU should they require them.".

I thank the Deputies for raising these important matters and allowing us time to discuss them today. Since 2022, we have seen significant increases in the prices that households and business pay for energy. This has come alongside inflation at rates we had not seen in recent memory. While there have been some price falls in the energy market since August of last year, energy prices and cost-of-living pressures remain matters of serious concern. The Government is aware of the challenges that householders still face in meeting these costs and remains committed to supporting those most at risk. I will take this opportunity to reaffirm to the House that the Government will continue to take action to support households to meet the cost of energy so that they can stay warm and well. Today, I will address the steps that the Government has taken to support households to meet these costs and the actions being taken to protect Irish consumers over the long term by making critical investments in renewable energy and energy efficiency.

First, I want to address the international dimensions of our energy market and some of the challenges we have seen in recent years. The pressures we face are not unique to Ireland. Rising energy costs have been seen across Europe since the economic recovery from the pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022. The invasion introduced great volatility into the wholesale gas market, which has directly led to higher prices being paid by households and businesses across Europe for electricity. There remains a strong correlation between wholesale gas and electricity prices as gas remains an important source of fuel in the electricity generation mix. Wholesale electricity prices are set on a merit order system and gas generation provides the marginal wholesale price. At their peak in August 2022, wholesale natural gas spot prices were trading at a multiple of 13 times their pre-pandemic average levels. Wholesale prices have stabilised and fallen since then but remain elevated compared to the pre-pandemic average. In line with rising wholesale prices since the post-pandemic recovery, which have been accelerated by the war in Ukraine, household electricity and gas bills rose significantly in 2022 and have remained elevated since.

In the Irish electricity market, hedging means that suppliers purchase a significant proportion of the energy they trade up to 18 months in advance. This may impact their ability to reduce prices immediately in line with wholesale price shifts. However, hedging also reduced the impact to final customers of higher wholesale energy prices in advance of and during the peak wholesale prices reached in 2022. This meant a more gradual increase in prices was experienced by final customers in Ireland. This gradual increase has been mirrored by a slower decrease in retail prices as wholesale spot and futures prices decline. Given that energy prices in Ireland are not regulated, in line with the deregulation of European energy markets, price setting and hedging is a commercial matter for suppliers.

Last year I wrote to the CRU requesting that a review of the pricing and hedging strategies be carried out to determine if there have been any market failures. The CRU published its report in September 2023 and outlined that it sees no evidence of failure in the retail market, but that it will continue to monitor this. We have now seen significant falls in energy prices which are now being seen on consumer bills. Across the autumn and winter period all major suppliers announced at least two rounds of price cuts, with each being in the region of between 8% and 30%. However, the Government is aware that energy customers in Ireland still pay significantly more on their energy bills than they did in 2020 and has taken action to ensure households are supported over the short term to meet these costs.

Budget 2024 included a new electricity cost emergency benefit scheme, through which €450 was credited to each domestic electricity account in three payments of €150. The estimated cost of this scheme is €1.007 billion. Combined with the previous electricity cost benefit schemes, over 2.1 million households will have automatically received €1,250 of support onto their electricity bill since the start of 2022, at a total cost of over €2.5 billion. The budget also provided for a range of lump sum social welfare payments to assist people with cost-of-living pressures. These were targeted at the most vulnerable in society. The regulator also played an important role in protecting consumers, including the introduction of a winter disconnection moratorium for all domestic electricity consumers from the start of December 2023 to the end of January 2024 and an extended moratorium for vulnerable customers, the introduction of extended debt repayment plans and reduced debt burden on prepay energy top-ups and the promotion of vulnerable customer registers, which have seen a significant increase in the number of people registered, who are afforded additional protections due to particular vulnerabilities.

Budget 2024 also included record funding to the SEAI to support the achievement of our targets under the national retrofit plan. This reflects our core objective of improving the energy efficiency of our built environment and the principle that the cleanest and cheapest energy is that which we do not use. This year, a total of €300 million will be spent on SEAI energy poverty schemes and local authority retrofits. This will build on the progress of 2023, which saw 5,900 free upgrades provided to homes at risk of energy poverty through the better energy warmer homes scheme. This scheme, and the wider retrofit plan, is rooted in the principle of ensuring fairness to all and supporting a just transition. These ambitions, and the record levels of funding, have been directly supported by the Government’s decision to ring-fence revenues from the carbon tax.

A core objective of this Government is to reduce emissions in the electricity sector and increase renewable electricity generation in Ireland. To that end, we have introduced schemes to support the development of renewable electricity generation including the renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, the microgeneration support scheme, MSS, and the small-scale renewable electricity generation scheme, SRESS. Through the success of these schemes and through various public and private investments being made across the country, we have made considerable progress in decarbonising and increasing the efficiency of our electricity sector. Ireland is a world leader in the integration of variable renewable electricity onto the grid. Data from the SEAI and the EPA shows an average of 46.1% of our electricity in 2023 came from renewable sources while the electricity generation sector saw emissions fall by nearly 24%.

In conclusion, the Government has made and will continue to make the critical investments needed to achieve a just energy transition, as outlined in the Climate Action Plan, but we are also committed to providing effective and practical supports for those struggling with their energy costs.

I have one or two observations about some of the comments made by Sinn Féin Deputies. The cause of the higher prices here compared with some other European countries is clearly due to two main components. The first is that we have a large percentage of gas electricity produced in our system, at about 50%. We can get rid of that in the next decade by switching to renewables, storage and investment in the grid. That will be the best way of protecting our consumers. The second main component is we have a very dispersed population. That is a cost we cannot ignore and we are not going to walk away from because we must provide universal access to every single household. However, we have a real opportunity in both the retrofitting schemes and the switch to renewables, that is, in efficiency and renewable generation, to set up a future where our economy is secure. We would be keeping money and jobs in our country rather than exporting them by purchasing imported fossil fuels.

I differ with the Deputies in respect of their commentary that our retrofitting scheme is not socially just and is not working. Deputy O'Rourke and I were discussing this earlier at the select committee in the context of the Revised Estimates. We have the highest level of activity in Europe now in retrofitting on a per capitabasis. It is proving hugely successful. There are 1,000 households a week being retrofitted, which means they have warmer, healthier and more cost-effective homes. The truth, as set out in the response I gave earlier, is that €300 million of the supports we provide are targeted at the most vulnerable. We are being very strategic in looking to ensure those most at risk of fuel poverty are protected most, and that is happening at scale across our country. For those slightly above that category - that is, not in receipt of fuel allowance - there was an announcement that two further banks, AIB and Bank of Ireland, are launching low-cost loan schemes. This is €70,000, ten-year lending without it having to be secured at 3% interest rates. That allows everyone to get access to the grants, which are, as I said, really generous by European standards. It is working well and that is something. I do not think any independent analysis could accept that it is not socially just and that it is not effective. It is working. That is the best way of addressing fuel poverty and we are doing it at scale.

Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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I thank my colleagues, especially Deputy O'Rourke, for bringing this motion to the floor. Affordable electricity is the main theme of this motion. Ireland has one of the highest prices of electricity per unit in Europe. Sinn Féin and other Opposition parties have raised this issue countless times on the floor of the Dáil and presented countless ideas and solutions, including a windfall tax, at a time when prices were at their peak and unscrupulous actors were exploiting the wars across the world, including the one in Ukraine, to line their pockets with huge profits and enhance their dividends. However, the Government’s approach was too slow. A far more effective windfall tax was needed when these profiteers were choking small rural pubs, family restaurants, coffee shops, bakeries and small retailers to death. These once-vibrant little business faced overnight the doubling and trebling of their electricity bills and this caused many to close their doors. Some of them were in business for generations and at the heart and soul of both rural and urban communities.

Everyone knows the future of our energy security will rely heavily on wind energy. Ireland is in a very fortunate position to produce and supply wind-generated electricity to our domestic market and European neighbours. Some experts describe Ireland as the Saudi Arabia of wind. Unfortunately, we again see the lack of ambition to turn this vast natural resource into a source of national wealth for all. As the Minister knows, the window of opportunity closes in 2027. That is why it is vital to bring these renewable wind energy projects to fruition as soon as possible. Rosslare Europort is a prime example of this. The recent agreement between it, Ocean Winds and Bord na Móna is very welcome, but if the Government is serious about developing large-scale renewable offshore projects, it has no time to spare and must move quickly to recognise Rosslare Europort needs far more investment to protect our energy security for the people of Ireland and for their future.

We also asked the Minister to reflect on the electricity market regulatory practices to give the CRU the mandate to prioritise energy affordability to consumers. For instance, in August we have another hike in carbon tax that will inevitably lead to an increase in electricity bills for both domestic and commercial consumers. Another increase on the horizon is the public service obligation levy, which I understand will be increased substantially at the end of this year and into 2025. That will be another hiking of the already high cost of electricity bills. The opportunity is here now. We are calling on the Government to empower the CRU to protect consumers from the high electricity prices that are already two thirds higher than the European Union average. We call on all TDs to support this motion.

Ruairi Ó Murchú (Louth, Sinn Fein)
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What else can be said? We have the most expensive electricity prices across the European Union. They are two thirds higher than the average, with the typical Irish household paying nearly €700 more per year. That is really what it is all about. There is a certain acceptance of our being an island and at the end of a line, but there are some very specific solutions that my colleagues, especially Deputy O'Rourke, have spoken about and hardly for the first time in this House.

It is fair to say the Government was very slow with a windfall tax. It really only happened when the EU came up with its particular one which only applied to oil and gas companies and not electricity companies so even when we did one, we did not do what was necessary.

We know we are talking about something across the board. We are talking about reforming the electricity market and that is decoupling wholesale gas from the price of electricity and redistributing network charges progressively. It is not the first time people have spoken about the absolute necessity of reforming the CRU. We know we need to regulate standing charges, hedging practices and anti-competitive behaviour. There is not much point in giving powers to a regulator without adequately resourcing them. This is not the first time we have spoken about that in this House.

I will bring up two particular points. The Minister spoke earlier about retrofitting and I make the argument that with regard to some of the houses that are being retrofitted that sometimes what happens is those with resources are able to get resources from the Government earlier and more quickly and therefore some of the houses that least need to be retrofitted are being retrofitted but so be it.

I will talk specifically about council housing. Louth County Council has been given a target of 145 houses this year. Louth County Council delivered 205 last year. It has constantly drawn down more money and shown capacity. There is a major problem with this because we are looking at a county that can do far more and we know the needs that are there.

I have spoken many times about both communal and district heating systems. We need to look at the support scheme for renewable heat, SSRH, provided by the SEAI becoming something that can lead to the necessary steps as regards district heating being provided from waste energy but also geothermal and other alternatives. I do not think that piece of work has been done and many experts have spoken about it lately.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank the Minister for his response in which he stated that, "Ireland is a world leader in the integration of variable renewable electricity onto the grid." Yet Ireland has the most expensive energy costs. A number of the speakers referenced energy poverty. We still have food banks today.

I told a story a while back in this House. It was a true story that broke my heart about a child aged probably six or seven who had spent practically all of his life sleeping on a beanbag. His mother was living in fear because she could not afford the electricity bill. This was before the Government bought in the exceptional needs payments for these cases. That was the fear before we had the war. There are people out there who are really worried about the coming winter and that it will be a choice between food and energy. People are not making this up.

We have the potential here for growth. The growth is amazing with wind energy but also green hydrogen energy. As has been said to me, the fact is we should be the Dubai of Europe when it comes to producing energy such as this. We should export hydrogen and by-products of oxygen and ammonia, which is a massive one. That would take the pressure off using gas to refine oil, petrol and diesel.

I thank Deputy O'Rourke for bringing forward this motion, which is about bringing things into the system more rapidly. We are only here for another couple of weeks. We do not know what we will face coming into this winter. Geothermal energy was also mentioned. I installed a geothermal system into a house 20 or 25 years ago. Why have we never gone into geothermal? Is it because it would not suit other suppliers of panels or whatever? We have to be realistic about this but I call on the Government to support the points made by Deputy O'Rourke and others tonight and support the motion. Let us hope and pray to God that people will not be battered down for the winter this year again with people saying they cannot afford to heat their homes or keep the lights on. We do not want to go back to living by candlelight again.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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In my constituency of Dublin North-West, there are a significant number of areas that have a high percentage of elderly people. There are also areas of the constituency with a much younger population and who have young families. There are also some areas of economic disadvantage.

Unfortunately, unemployment rates are also high in areas of Dublin North-West and it is a constant struggle for many people to put food on the table for their families or to give them any sort of basic quality of life. We have also seen over the last number of winters how difficult it has been for families to heat their homes. The cost of energy has escalated to a degree that for some families heating their home is a luxury. This is unacceptable in this day and age. Electricity bills can generally make up a big part of annual household expenditure so this dependency on electricity and the increase in electricity costs will have a direct impact on the choices a family has to make. These choices are increasingly between paying the electricity bill or providing for their family.

Families have received eye-watering electricity bills in recent years that are impossible for many on low incomes, pensions or welfare to pay. This has impacted greatly on people's physical and mental health as well as their quality of life, especially for the elderly. There seems to be no respite for people for the foreseeable future and they will continue to have to pay these exorbitant electricity bills.

A number of people who have come to my constituency office have gone into significant arrears because of these huge electricity bills. This is causing huge anxiety among many people and many are terrified of being cut off altogether because of their accumulated arrears. The Government should do more to alleviate this situation, especially at domestic level. The Government needs to consider other interventions to address this escalating crisis in electricity costs.

Something is clearly wrong with the Government's approach. Before tax and other charges, electricity prices in Ireland are at least 60% above the EU average. The household energy price index shows that prices paid by Irish consumers are the second most expensive in all of Europe. This is largely down to a number of factors, including, for example, an over-reliance on fossil fuels over renewable sources when generating electricity. The Government needs to be more proactive in utilising those natural, renewable resources this country has an abundance of.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this motion. We in the Labour Party support it wholeheartedly. After a sustained period of record rises, electricity prices are starting to fall but remain at around double what we might term "normal levels". Citizens are really suffering. They are struggling. I have lost count of the number of occasions during the last two years where people have presented me with their electricity bills or grocery bills expressing their concern about the impact it is having on them and their families.

According to bonkers.ie, it is likely the cost of gas and electricity will fall by approximately another 10% to 15 % over the coming weeks. Wholesale energy prices have eased over the past year or so and this fall is now being passed on, to a point, to consumers, although wholesale prices still remain around double the historical levels.

Since last September all the main energy suppliers have cut their prices twice amounting to a punitive reduction of around 20% to 25% for most households but I add this rider that it is from a very high base indeed.

At the time when the trend in prices is starting to at least edge downwards the CRU is ready to make an untimely and unwelcome intervention with plans, it seems, to introduce a PSO levy of €40 per annum per household. The PSO levy has been set at zero in recent times and for good reason. I do not believe the recent downward trend in prices is enough to see that policy reversed, certainly not just yet. This motion calls for new powers for the CRU but I ask that it exercises a power it already has and delay imposing the PSO levy, at least until prices are much lower.

Most of the high costs shouldered by homes and businesses here are down to regulators which do not have the interests of consumers at heart. They are simply, in most cases, nodding dogs for business. They are signing off on big increases for business and they are letting consumers go whistle. That is an unfortunate reality for consumers in this country. We need to absolutely review and change the regulatory framework and the culture of regulation in this country. Our regulators in this country need to stand up for consumers and that has not been the case across the spectrum of regulated entities and utilities in this country and that needs to change.

8 o’clock

There are other potential obstacles in the road that may prevent electricity prices from continuing to trend downwards, including a possible hike in network fees paid to EirGrid and Gas Networks Ireland for the upkeep of the network. If that happens, no doubt the energy companies will be quick to pass on the cost to households. Almost a third of our energy bills are made up of network costs. The CRU sets the amount that EirGrid and Gas Networks Ireland can charge suppliers and will set a new rate this autumn. The Minister's Department needs to be watchful in this regard.

There is the prospect of a VAT increase or at least a reversal of the VAT cut we saw in May 2022. With prices still around 70% to 80% more than what they were three years ago, I urge the Government to keep the lower rate of VAT on electricity in place for at least one more budget cycle and to keep that under review. Reversing the VAT cut this year could add around €65 a year to the average electricity bill and a further €55 a year to gas bills.

Standing charges have long been an issue in the domestic energy market and frankly they have got out of control in recent years. The most recent trend with standing charges is downwards. I welcome this motion's attempts to impose a more long-term regulatory structure on the charges through the CRU. No one can avoid standing charges, regardless of how little energy householders or businesses use. The main issue with standing charges is that they are, by definition, regressive. They are imposed regardless of the amount of energy used or the income of the household and pay no attention to the principle that the polluter pays. They are a blunt instrument and seemingly set arbitrarily by the energy companies at whatever level suits them. It is right that the CRU be given explicit powers to regulate in this space. To the best of my recollection, Deputy O'Rourke had a Bill in this regard last year.

While Irish households are now seeing cuts in their electricity bills, those bills remain, as we know, the second highest in Europe. There has been an undeniable lag in the passing on of falling wholesale gas prices to domestic electricity customers. This motion calls for the breaking of the link between wholesale gas prices and the setting of electricity prices so that price reductions can be delivered quicker. Right now, the Irish consumer is subject to the vagaries of hedging and is paying the price for electricity that was set by the wholesale rates paid by suppliers months or even a couple of years ago.

Of course, another way to break that link in the longer term is to decrease our reliance on gas to generate electricity in the first place and to invest much more in sustainable alternatives. One of the principal sustainable alternatives we believe Ireland can excel at is offshore wind. To his credit, the Minister has been a significant promoter of not just the concept of offshore wind but of ensuring we have the framework in which that happens. Is that really the moonshot moment that the former Taoiseach, Deputy Leo Varadkar, referred to? Are we really capitalising on that in the way that we should be and introducing the kind of infrastructural supports that are required to service the offshore wind industry when it finally becomes an industry of scale?

I will give the Minister a case in point. The Minister will be aware that the Drogheda Port Company is embarking on a very substantial project at framework at Bremore, between Drogheda and Balbriggan. One of the principal aims of that project is to, in the future, service what we hope will be a burgeoning and expanding offshore wind industry. The Minister knows well that these are the sustainable jobs of the future, but we are not putting the investment in place at the moment, and I do not believe we have sufficient imagination to allow companies like Drogheda Port Company to plan for the future and provide the infrastructure needed to service an industry that is sustainable and can provide the jobs of the future.

Energy poverty is a real crisis in Ireland and working people are really struggling to make ends meet. The disparity between Ireland's apparent economic success on paper and the stark reality faced by households struggling to keep up with historically high household bills is deeply concerning. The lived experiences of families grappling with energy poverty cannot be dismissed or overlooked. We cannot ignore the fact that a significant portion of our population is grappling all the time with the reality of energy poverty. They are making decisions every week on whether to heat the house, feed themselves or clothe their children. They are not decisions that any family in a rich society should have to make. The Government must step up and prioritise measures to alleviate this burden on households and small businesses. We need policies that ensure affordable access to energy for all, irrespective of economic background. I appeal to the Minister this year not to repeat the trick of so-called once-off payments to homes that objectively do not need them. We need to ensure that we target the resources we have at the families who need those resources the most. It is a moral imperative. It is a matter of social justice to safeguard those vulnerable households and businesses from the harsh realities of energy insecurity.

The big energy companies, as has been said by several contributors throughout this evening's debate, have made eye-watering profits in recent years on the back of hard-pressed consumers who are overpaying for energy, but we have not continued with the windfall tax that was imposed some time ago on the excessive, supernormal profits of energy companies. That is something that I think we will need to revisit. There is currently the illusion that normality is returning to the market but the fact is that prices are still close to twice what they were just a few short years ago. I hope the Minister agrees that is anything but normal. It is time for the Government and its regulatory watchdogs to get proper hold of the energy sector with a focus on protecting consumers from price gouging and profiteering, and insulating families in this country from the scandal and scourge of energy poverty.

Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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I welcome the opportunity to contribute to this debate on affordable electricity. Since the beginning of the cost-of-living crisis, spiralling energy costs have had a devastating impact on many families and workers. Many have been forced to make the stark choice between the various essentials in any family budget and trying to decide which of those essentials they will drop in order to be able to afford to meet their energy bills. That is no way for any family to have to live. In households across the country, some families continue to struggle to clear their bills before the next one arrives. The situation can be particularly difficult for pre-pay customers. While winter may be behind us, the crisis certainly is not.

Figures released by the CRU last month showed that 10% of electricity customers were still in arrears while 25% of gas customers were behind on their bills. Just yesterday, the Vincentian MESL Research Centre published its minimum essential standards of living report for 2024. That report showed a significant reduction in energy costs when compared with the 2023 costs, with an average decrease of 24.9% in urban areas and 12.2% in rural areas. Those figures may seem good on the surface, but compared with 2020, there has been a 64.5% increase in energy costs. As a result of this staggering increase, too many households remain in energy poverty. According to the Government's own energy poverty action plan, this is when energy costs account for 10% of net household income.

The 2024 MESL report found that a number of social welfare recipients continue to live in energy poverty. This includes single adults whose energy costs account for almost 12% of their household income and lone parents with two children where over 11% of household income goes on energy. The older single adult household type showed the greatest level of change from 2020 to 2024. The share of their income allocated to minimum energy needs increased by 4.1 percentage points, from 6% in 2020 to over 10% in 2024.

Clearly, despite recent drops in energy costs, a broad gap remains between household energy and social welfare income, leaving low-income households very vulnerable to energy poverty. That is why this Government’s untargeted and frankly wasteful response to the energy crisis must be called out. In the last two budgets, millions of euro went to households that simply did not need it.

The Social Democrats have consistently called for a greater focus on low- and middle-income households. In our alternative budget, we called for the establishment of an energy crisis subsidy scheme. This would have provided direct cash transfers to households on a graduated basis related to income. Last year, we also proposed a €15 per week increase in the fuel allowance to €48 per week, as well as an expansion of its eligibility to include the working family payment recipients. Instead, this Government retained the €33 per week rate, leaving the payment frozen. That was the third year in which that was done. Meanwhile, millions and millions of euro went to people who did not need it at all. I accept that electricity credits help to supplement the reduced value of the core rate for fuel allowance, but that is no excuse for not raising it. Budget 2025 must provide an increase in that critical payment.

In respect of market regulation, this Government has been too hands-off throughout the entire energy crisis. On the foot of an EU regulation, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, introduced a windfall tax, but that was just one of a range of measures he could have availed of to tackle high prices. Other European countries introduced retail price regulation. In fact, Ireland was one of only two countries in Europe not to bring in retail price regulation and countries such as France and Spain also implemented wholesale price regulation. Clearly, there were other measures open to this Government under EU rules, but it failed to implement them, and it was the customers who paid the price of that inaction on the part of the Government.

It is also clear that the CRU requires more powers. It needs teeth to protect customers from hedging practices and anti-competitive behaviour, which we have seen right across the energy market. Last year, the Central Bank of Ireland said that Irish energy prices were out of line with Europe because energy companies were failing to transfer reductions to their customers. Figures released by the CSO last September revealed that wholesale electricity prices had dropped by 72.5% in August 2023. Despite this, there had only been a 3% decrease in electricity prices by February of this year, according to the household energy price index, HEPI. The index also found that electricity prices in Dublin remained 66.4% higher than the average in other European member states. That is a staggering figure. When so many other aspects of the cost of living are so high for people living in this country, that is a shocking figure.

Even with the further decreases that have happened since then, there is still a completely unacceptable lag between wholesale energy prices coming down and those savings being passed on to consumers. While any decrease in bills is to be welcomed, we must not lose sight of the fact that these reductions are coming from a very high base, not to mention the obscene profits that are being made by many of those companies.

Finally, I would like to focus on energy consumption. In recent years, there has been a great reduction in electricity use and emissions from the residential sector, but there has been no curb on the consumption of large-scale energy users, such as data centres. My colleague, Deputy Whitmore, has been pursuing this issue for quite some time. She has repeatedly called on the CRU to be charged with examining the impact of data centres, not just on energy consumption and emissions, but also on pricing. Currently, each Government Department or State body deals with separate components of these energy-intensive data centres, and incredibly, the CRU does not maintain a list or register of data centres.

When the CSO released its data centre figures last year, it was evident that it had to scramble to collect information from a number of different sources. I accept that data centres are required in the digital age, but they must be efficient, well managed and regulated, and this is not happening at the moment. The State must also not become beholden to tech companies and powerful lobbying groups. We should not fall foul of their scare tactics at the expense of our energy security or climate action. The real-world ramifications of these data centres on our energy infrastructure and climate targets must be examined closely. Ultimately, a far more aggressive approach is required to tackle long-term energy costs and improve our energy resilience.

The Minister’s patting himself on the back for failure just does not cut it anymore. It is time for a more ambitious, State-led effort to ensure that households are protected from energy prices and supply shocks, as well as creating a much more sustainable Ireland. That is why we in the Social Democrats have consistently called for massive investment in solar panels, an expanded retrofitting grant scheme and the introduction of a pay-as-you-save home installation loan scheme. The time for dithering is over. We need to get serious about the scale of this crisis.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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The Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is currently departing the Chamber-----

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I am here.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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-----and I am sorry that I did not get a chance to challenge his countermotion directly with him.

I must first thank Sinn Féin for tabling this important motion on energy costs. We are happy to support the measures in it, such as beefing up the CRU to try to address the high cost of energy in this country. However, we would go further, and we think we need caps. We tabled a Bill at the beginning of this year to bring in energy price caps. Indeed, we would go further than that and say that we have to nationalise the energy sector in this country if we are actually going to deal with the fact that we have the highest energy prices in Europe. People are being ripped off and it is a direct result of the philosophy that has been pursued by the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and successive governments. The essence of the problem is captured in his countermotion where he says, accurately, that:

— the position of successive Governments has been that competitive energy markets result in greater choice for consumers and businesses, in terms of suppliers, products and prices; and prices in the electricity and gas retail markets have been fully deregulated since 2011 and 2014 respectively;

That is an accurate statement of Government's position, and it bears absolutely no relationship to the reality of what has happened since that deregulation. In fact, the exact opposite happened. I was amusing myself by looking at the articles on deregulation in 2011, which is when it happened. The ESB's chief executive was celebrating the deregulation when he stated:

We have waited a long time for this to happen, and for much of that time, the ESB was saying that if the regulator removed its shackles it would be able to aggressively compete on price.

He said the company has been given the chance to "get into the game" and said that it would create a "win-win situation for the suppliers and consumers and should drive down prices".

That is exactly what the Minister said in this countermotion. More than 14 years later, however, the exact opposite happened. As soon as it deregulated, got into the game and moved the ESB from a not-for-profit mandate to competing in a for-profit, deregulated market, our prices for electricity went from the lowest in Europe to the highest. That is exactly what happened. We have the highest prices in Europe. When the ESB had a not-for-profit mandate, we had the lowest prices in Europe. It does not take a genius to work that out, yet the Government continues with the mantra of competition producing lower prices. It baffles me and is sort of Orwellian that that continues to be the mantra. It is absolutely shocking. Of course, the result is misery for 29% of the population. More than a quarter of the population, according to the ESRI, suffers energy poverty. Most of that is concentrated among people in private rental accommodation and council houses. Disproportionately, there is almost double the level of energy poverty if you are a private renter or you live in a council house because they have not been retrofitted. The proportion of your income you have to pay for energy is more than twice the proportion of income rich people have to pay. The Government compounds this with a series of regressive taxes like the carbon tax, VAT and excise. All of them are regressive. This is not me saying this - the studies are there. The richest 10% of the population spends 10% of household income on indirect taxes. The poorest 10% spend 29% on indirect taxes. Coincidentally, the same number suffer energy poverty because one of the biggest expenditure items for poor people is keeping their houses warm. The net result of the manner in which the Government has done this has compounded the impacts of the deregulation and privatisation of the energy market. Of course the Ukraine crisis had an impact. Only a fool would say it did not have an impact, but only a fool would fail to acknowledge that the energy companies took advantage of it and engaged in rampant profiteering. Their profits every single year have gone through the roof on the back of these energy price hikes. The Government wants to compound the situation. It was forced, under pressure, to give one-off payments to somewhat mitigate this but its longer-term policy, stated in this countermotion, is to remain committed to a competition model which resulted in prices going steadily up since the market was deregulated and in regressive taxes that disproportionately hurt the poor.

To further compound it, there is a grant model for retrofitting homes which favours the wealthy. It is much easier for the wealthy to make up the gap between the actual cost and the grants available to retrofit a home if they are in certain income brackets than it is for workers who cannot make up that gap. One could even argue to some degree that retrofits of homes of the very wealthy are subsidised by the taxes of the very poor, which is ironic and unacceptable. We believe more robust measures need to be taken, we need to learn the lesson that the deregulation of the energy market was a disaster and we need to go back to the ESB having a not-for-profit model and imposing caps on energy prices, as we proposed in a Bill this year. To be honest, our Bill was not even particularly radical. It suggested that the per kWh price for electricity be set at 25 cent and for gas at 8 cent. Currently, Bord Gáis charges 8.94 cent per kWh, SSE Airtricity charges 9.61 cent per kWh and Flogas charges 10.18 cent per kWh. Gas is currently 35.83 cent per kWh. We proposed a cap of 25 cent per kWh. Those are the prices for standard customers. I have seen kWh prices for people on district heating systems which are multiples of that. There are shocking levels of prices. People in those properties, usually apartment blocks, with other lesser known companies are being ripped off. They do not even have access to so-called competition because they are tied into a particular system of district heating and getting astronomical bills. Frankly, I do not know how some people even manage to pay them, they are so shockingly high. Then there is the human misery that flows from that, particularly for elderly people, people with disabilities and poor or vulnerable people. The suffering and hardship that results from all of this is shocking. That is our view. We welcome Sinn Féin's proposals. They would be an improvement. We need to go further by returning to a not-for-profit model for the energy sector and capping prices.

The Minister is sometimes praised for wanting to develop offshore renewable wind energy. Of course, we should have that but it will make absolutely no difference to energy prices if it is privatised, which is the plan. In fact, the French state energy company will own more of the energy produced offshore in this country than we will. That is a flipping scandal.

Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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I too welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue. Where energy prices are concerned, the biggest problem is that we do not know who owns what. I will first address the issue of wind farms. Down my side of the country, there are six proposals to build wind farms near where I live. That is all great for green energy, providing Government policy and meeting our climate action measures but the local people are not very happy. They are not happy with the fact that the landscape will be destroyed with wind towers 185 m high. It is deemed a strategic infrastructure development and, therefore, does not even have to go to the county council for planning permission; it can go straight to An Bord Pleanála. The idea of strategic infrastructural development has gone past its sell-by date because it does not improve or increase the speed at which things get done. Private investors are getting involved in this market. They provide projects and if they are successful in getting them through the planning permission stage, they then have an asset which they can sell off again and again. At the end of the day, we do not know who owns it or who can run it. Communities are paid off with the promise of what is called a community dividend. I would call that a bribe to just wait quietly. I mentioned to the Taoiseach that all of these wind farms are being planned in an era in which we have outdated planning guidelines, in place since 2006, when wind turbine height was approximately 85 m. We have a bit of soul-searching to regarding what we do when trying to produce green energy through onshore wind energy.

When I look at some of the proposals that are coming forward, we are going back. It is a retrograde step. It will destroy communities. It is dividing communities and it is being done without proper consultation. When an application for planning does not even go to the person's local authority in the first instance to be adjudged, it says a lot about what is happening in that sector.

In my constituency, there is a proposal to build what they call a reserve gas-fired generator and a battery storage area. People might say that is great and a fantastic investment but again it is being done by private investors. The gas will be piped from Tynagh to a place between Killimer and Portumna. I was told that when it was proposed, the local people were told it was going to be a solar panel farm. What is being built, however, will take up more than 100 acres in rural Ireland. It will create a natural gas generating electricity generator. It is not green energy and it will have kerosene as a backup in case the natural gas is not there. It will have serious implications for security, for fire, for safety, for the environment and for all the residents around there in terms of their properties and devaluation. God only knows why such a project is even being dreamed up to be put in a place like this. What happened again is that this project did not even go before Galway County Council as normal planning. It has gone to An Bord Pleanála as strategic infrastructural development. It is unbelievable to think that a project of this size is being proposed by private investors without any proper consultation. Mind you, one of the things they did do was to send out cheques to 35 local community groups in the area - and I do not know whether these were supposed to be community dividends - before anybody copped on to what was going on. Only for the vigilance of a particular person who spoke to one of the people on the ground who was putting in a microphone to test sound, and following a discussion, he found that this was not for solar panels and this was a generating station. He was brought up to Tullamore so they could show him what exactly they were doing and he was flabbergasted. That was only the weekend before last. It resulted in 100 people gathering in Portumna last Thursday night to find out a bit more about this. I found out about it on Thursday and I was in Galway County Council on Friday morning only to discover the planning application was already lodged with An Bord Pleanála and that the clock is ticking.

If this is the kind of development we are doing to create energy security, we are doing a huge disservice to the people in this country. It is high time we called it out for what it is. It is utter blackguardism of the people in rural Ireland and people in cities. They think we are going to get cheap energy and security of energy but they do not realise we are going to have to pay through the nose for every bit of it because we will not own one piece of it. We are blindly following the idea that we need to have this infrastructure at all costs and at any cost. I fear for the future of our country if this is what we are doing. Effectively, we are selling our assets out of the country like a fire sale in a way.

With green energy we have been telling people that solar panels are a great thing - and they are - but there is problem. If someone borrows €10,000 to €15,000 to put in solar panels, they get a grant of €2,700 or €2,400. They put them in, they work and they are saving on energy and are creating green energy. Lo and behold the Government comes along and says, "If you feed more than €600 of electricity back to the grid, you are taxed on it." I wonder what that is all about. It is another opportunity to tax people when they are trying to do something that is good for their home and good for the environment but straight away the Government puts in a tax. There should be no income tax put on anybody who is feeding electricity back into the grid. They are doing a service to this country and they are putting it in at a price that is very low compared to what they are paying for their electricity. Again it is an opportunity for the Government to take the money from the victims, the taxpayers in this country, or from people who borrow money to put in a solar panel and battery set-up in their houses. The Government gives them a grant to bring them in but in a short time it will get that money back in income tax if the sun is shining or if the days are bright.

There is a lot of soul searching to be done in relation to our agenda about greening this country. At the moment people in rural Ireland and in my constituency who are impacted by all of these developments feel they are being conned into something they do not like. They are watching it very carefully.

I did not talk much about the affordability but in essence I am referring to it. We are losing control over affordability by selling everything off and letting private investors in while subsidising them to get these projects up and running. It is important that we say it as it is so everybody understands what is going on. It is not scaremongering. These are the facts I see on the ground in my constituency and across the country where we have communities coming together to try to stop this mayhem that is being imposed on them with wind farms and other such developments by private investors who are out to make money. Fair dues to them: when they see the opportunity they can do that.

It is time for a wake-up call and to say, "Hold on a minute. We are not doing this right at all." We need to get back to basics. We need to understand what we want to do and who we are doing it for. We are doing it for the people. We have to do it for the people and not for the profit-making for other people.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I really believe that if you live long enough you will get to see an awful lot. I welcome the Sinn Féin Private Members' motion here tonight. At the same time, this is the same Sinn Féin voted for the climate Bill, which paved the way for carbon tax increases. This is the same Sinn Féin that then proposed a motion in the Dáil against that carbon tax. When Deputy Mattie McGrath called a vote in the Convention Centre on the Finance Bill in 2020, the only backing he got was from nine Independent Deputies. Sinn Féin voted to give away our right to debate ten years of carbon tax increases to 2030. I want everybody to hear that because it is a very important message.

I welcome Sinn Féin's conversion on the road to Damascus with this motion tonight. It is recognising that it was wrong. There was no way we should have done that and people really should have listened to Deputy Mattie McGrath in 2020. They should have voted in favour of what he proposed then. We are faced with a Government that is telling us to rely more and more on electricity, with electric cars and electric heating in homes, while at the same time we are producing less and less of it at a higher and higher cost.

This is the same Government, supported by Sinn Féin because of the way it voted on those carbon tax increases, which went against our liquified natural gas facility in the north Kerry landbank. Not only did it go against it but the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in his infinite wisdom objected to it. This is the same landbank in respect of which the Tánaiste, Deputy Martin, went around north Kerry, and I will never forget it until the day I am put into a box. He smiled and shook hands with everybody and said he would be behind the people 100% in this but, of course, that was only a couple of weeks before an election and then he forgot all about it. I would love to have more time to speak on this.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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I echo the sentiments of Deputy Michael Healy-Rae. Sinn Féin is back here again with an election looming. After the last election, it realised the people of Ireland do not want it because again it is changing its stories over and over again after it voted for carbon tax. A person will get a grant for up to €2,100 for solar panels but in the last three years, the cost of the panels has gone up by 20% due to inflation. Why bother giving the grants if all it is doing is driving up the price of solar panels?

Our wind energy planning regulations have been outdated for the past 15 to 20 years. The regulations only cover turbines up to 80 m high, but these machines are now 100 m and 120 m high. Given the distance between houses and family homes, we can see where the problem lies. Ireland does not have the land bank for wind energy onshore. We have the means to generate this offshore but not on land.

People must realise that the price of electricity is going up They are being forced to put in heat pumps and all the rest of it, and their bills are higher. It is continuous inflation. Sinn Féin has been a part of this because the party voted for the carbon tax that brings this impact to everyone's house. People must start believing that everything the Independents have been saying here for the past four years has been the truth. Every time there is something on, this populist party changes its story. The Independents have been the only true voice for the people of this country who are suffering.

Carol Nolan (Laois-Offaly, Independent)
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As I listen to the same issue being brought up again and again in this House, I am obliged to ask for how much longer the Irish people are meant to put up with being ripped off and exploited by electricity companies. Have much longer will businesses have to try to put up with this situation as well? I know for a fact that many small businesses have closed because the electricity prices were the straw that broke the camel's back. We need intervention here. The Government needs to hold the energy companies to account. A few years ago, the Rural Independent Group brought a motion of this type to the floor of the House. However, it did not refer to the transition to net zero because we do not agree with the climate action legislation. This is why I believe the motion before us is weak. It is certainly not as strong as the one we brought forward several years ago.

I wonder about the energy prices. These are €700 more expensive annually in Ireland than the EU average. Why is that the case? Why does the Government refuse to hold the energy companies to account? Why are its members allowing their constituents to be ripped off? Why is it allowing damage to be done to our small businesses when they are already finding it hard to survive with the impact of the debt warehousing levy, the VAT rate and everything else coming down on top of them? Why is the Government doing that and allowing this situation to continue? I again ask the Government to bring in the energy companies and stop this extortion once and for all.

In terms of wind farms, which are becoming very topical, I reiterate the need for new guidelines that will give communities protections. We have wind farms being imposed on communities in my county. Lemanaghan is a community rich in archaeological history, and a wind farm is being imposed on it against the wishes of the people. I reiterate my opposition to this project.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I normally thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward a motion, but I cannot do so on this occasion because this is a trick-of-the-loop job. As Deputy Michael Healy-Rae stated, I did call for that vote during the debate on the Finance Bill. I called earlier, in the convention centre, for a vote against that proposal. You were all mad to jump on the wagon of the climate action legislation. We all know there is climate change but the people here are finding out too that this is a very costly experiment for them. Deputy Nolan asked very pertinent questions, and I wish to answer them - not that I am an expert or anything like that. On why we have the dearest electricity by far and everything else and why the Government will not challenge the big companies, it is because all the big parties are in bed with these companies. Full stop. We saw this with the issue relating to mica and cement. CRH, not the taxpayer, should have been made to pay the bill.

Sinn Féin is getting money from America. It is money for jam, and now it seems the party wants to get money from these companies too. I cannot see another reason for this. I am not the brightest person in the world but I have come to that conclusion. They all want to be in bed with the conglomerates and get funding from them. This is how our political system has got us here. It is a very sad place to be in 2024. We then have a plethora of NGOs landing up before ye, beside ye, behind ye and all over the place with ye, telling ye what to do and what to think. All this is driven by the agenda of George Soros and the World Economic Forum. Full stop. Ye have signed up to it blindly. The vote that will be held on the migration treaty tomorrow night is very much part of that well-planned and laid-out undertaking. They have sold their souls for power, money and pensions. Deputy Michael McGrath, who was a great colleague of mine for years and with whom I often travelled, and whom I congratulate on his new job as our European Commissioner, came in here last week with another trick-of-the-loop job. A motion was put down to do one thing. It was stated that it would not be opposed but it was spoken against and rejected. Again, this was punishing the Irish people. They are tired of being punished and they are very much wise to ye.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I am glad to get the opportunity to say a few words about the cost of electricity. Of course, I have often said before that the closure of Shannonbridge and Lanesborough power stations has resulted in the cost of electricity going up day after day. We have no control anymore because we have lost our main source of energy. When the wind does not blow, we need to have something. This means that despite the steady fall in European gas prices since the beginning of 2023, Irish consumers are unlikely to see this decline reflected in their bills any time soon. This is due to the way suppliers purchase energy, often buying their gas six months in advance at a higher predicted price. This is because it is known there is nothing else. As a result, while some suppliers have reduced prices, those price drops pale in significance to the price drops customers in other EU countries are seeing.

The latest household energy price index has also reiterated the startling reality that Ireland's electricity prices continue to tower above the European average. This has placed an enormous burden on electricity users, leaving workers and families grappling with exorbitant electricity bills. Despite a modest 3% reduction in electricity prices over the years, Irish electricity prices remain a staggering 66.4% higher than is the case in any other European member state. Adding to people's frustration is the fact that energy companies are reaping substantial profits. For instance, the Government-owned ESB saw profits soar by an astounding 30% to €886 million in 2023.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Deputy.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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God almighty, do the Government members have any hearts at all? Will the Government give back some of this money and, in the first place, stop charging the amounts being charged, because people just cannot bear it?

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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I thank the Deputy. Go raibh maith agat. I call Deputy Joan Collins.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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In the context of the motion, we need to go further. However, I will support it. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing it forward for debate. It gives us an opportunity to discuss our whole energy system. That system is broken. The cost of heating homes and keeping the lights on has surpassed what many people can afford. We have giant fossil fuel and other energy companies making billions in profit while more and more people are forced into energy poverty. The ESRI has estimated that 29% of people are in energy poverty now. At the same time, the cost of producing this energy is destroying our planet and causing the climate crisis.

There are winners and losers in the climate crisis. The winners are the fossil fuel super-rich who owe their billions to destroying our planet. The losers are all of us paying massive energy bills to have our world destroyed. It is no longer good enough to leave the solution up to those with a direct profit motive to make this crisis worse. The energy market is the perfect example of how our current policy of market-based solutions is failing. There are two sides to this one coin, with one side the extortionate cost of buying energy and other the climate-destroying cost of producing that energy. In the context of both problems, the Government is not challenging the private companies. The only people benefiting from the situation are being allowed to shape our response.

As has been said, deregulation has led to higher electricity prices and less control over them. As I previously said in respect of deregulation, we have some of the highest electricity prices in Europe. The approach I have described, both in terms of the cost of energy for ordinary people and the cost to the planet, is failing. We are missing targets we have agreed to with the EU and in the context of the Paris Agreement. The Government is even missing climate targets it set for itself. It is becoming harder and harder for people to afford energy and to heat their homes.

What we need to do is have State interventions that begin to address these problems. We know what we need to do. In the short term, we need immediate regulations and price controls to stop the price gouging by the energy companies and not the windfall tax the Government brought in that had 20% price gouging built into it. These energy companies should not be getting any profit increases when ordinary people cannot afford to heat their homes and when the production of this energy is destroying the planet.

We need a State-led campaign to retrofit homes and build renewable energy. We must establish a State company to carry out a retrofitting program, starting with council houses, moving on to all those at risk of or in energy poverty and then everybody else. We will need to retrofit almost all buildings in the country, and the State should lead the way. If the State were to lead a programme of this nature, it would go a long way towards convincing the people of this country that the Government is serious about the climate crisis and climate change.

We also need the mass construction of solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy. There is no reason energy could not be nationalised under a State energy company. We need free public transport to manage a green, renewable-fuelled transport system and give people a real, affordable alternative to cars. These programmes would provide thousands of permanent, high-value, well-paid jobs.

What we cannot do is allow fossil fuel and energy companies to come up with a solution to the crisis they cause and for them to profit from it. Meanwhile, energy bills go up, as do global warming and fossil fuel use and the profits of energy companies.

We know this is a global problem that is caused by the global economic structure, but in Ireland we have particularly acute problems. We are uniquely placed to produce a wealth of wind and sea power and yet we consistently miss our targets. We have a knowledge economy and yet we completely lack an industrial policy to put it to use in order to fight the climate crisis. We are positioned to lose 30% of our grid to data centres in the coming decades, as we lack the regulations to stop climate destruction. We have some of the highest energy bills for ordinary people in Europe because we have failed to step in and stop price gouging. We have also failed to build the infrastructure and to carry out the necessary retrofitting to take the power away from the giant fossil fuel and energy companies. We must tax the billions in profit made destroying the planet and the price gouging of ordinary people and spend it on solving this crisis ourselves. We must intervene at this stage.

Violet-Anne Wynne (Clare, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important motion, especially given that electricity prices in Ireland are two thirds above the EU average. The rising cost of living has had a detrimental effect on households, families and workers, leaving so many having to choose between heating and food. The households most at risk are those that are most in need. The ESRI compared recent data with data collected in 2015 and 2016. This comparison shows that the number of households at risk of energy poverty has risen significantly from 13.2% to 29.4% in 2022. The Feminist Climate Justice Report found that those most impacted by energy poverty are single mothers renting private accommodation in Ireland. They are also disproportionately affected by substandard housing quality, including problems with dampness, leaks and rot, but current policy fails to take into account the gendered and intersectional aspects of energy poverty. Households where there are people with disabilities, with people over 65, those living alone, and people in the low- to middle-income bracket are all vulnerable to energy poverty.

Given the negative health implications for those living in substandard quality housing, it is in the State's best interest to address this issue. It is important to note that energy poverty is measured on the basis of whether a household is spending more than 10% of its income on energy. The Feminist Climate Justice Report, in association with the National Women's Council of Ireland, points out that the current metrics for calculating energy poverty are inaccurate and inadequate but, even so, the current figures are deplorable. The Government's energy poverty action plan has itself acknowledged the point and it claims "a more comprehensive methodology for measuring energy poverty in Ireland needs to be developed". If that is a priority for the Government then it has been a convenient failure that we have not even measured it properly.

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the opportunity to discuss our energy system and the pressures Irish households have faced because of high energy costs. I thank colleagues from across the House for their contributions. The pressures placed on households and businesses by high energy costs remain of deep concern to the Government. Providing supports to alleviate this pressure has been a priority for the Government and extensive work has and will continue to be undertaken across the Government to address these challenges.

The most significant factor affecting retail electricity and gas prices in Ireland is the wholesale price of gas. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities was established as an independent statutory regulator by the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 and ended its regulation of retail prices in the electricity market in 2011, and in the gas market in 2014. Consistent with the direction of European policy, Irish electricity and gas markets are liberalised, with price setting by electricity suppliers solely a commercial and operational matter for the companies concerned. The position of successive Governments has been that competitive energy markets result in greater choice for consumers and businesses, and fosters competition to drive down prices. We have seen this in recent months with the announcement of significant price reductions across electricity and gas markets. While the energy crisis has had a huge impact across Europe, Irish energy prices are also influenced by long-standing issues including our isolated island location, low levels of interconnection, a widely dispersed population, and a historic reliance on fossil fuels.

The best long-term approach for Ireland to insulate consumers from volatility on international wholesale energy markets is to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy, expand interconnection with neighbouring markets, and deepen the internal market in energy. The climate action plan sets out the strategy in place to achieve these goals, which support our decarbonisation and climate objectives.

In recognition of the high energy prices resulting from the Russian war in Ukraine, the Government has introduced a comprehensive suite of measures to support households including more than €2.5 billion in credits to each domestic electricity account, and a range of targeted supports through the social protection system.

Developments in the energy market are monitored by the Government and the regulator. We have recognised that some fossil fuel companies and electricity generators made extraordinary profits on the back of unprecedented energy shocks over the past two years. The Government implemented windfall measures of Council Regulation 2022/1854 through a cap on market revenues of specific technologies in the electricity sector for the period December 2022 to June 2023, and a temporary solidarity contribution on surplus profits in fossil fuel production and refineries. The measures implemented went beyond the minimum requirements of the regulation, with a 75% rate on surplus taxable profits implemented through the temporary solidarity contribution, compared with the 33% minimum set out in the regulation.

Approximately €185 million has been collected by the cap on market revenues, and €167.2 million was collected in 2023 through the temporary solidarity contribution, totalling over €352 million in proceeds collected to date. A further collection of the temporary solidarity contribution is due in September 2024. The moneys raised from the cap on market revenues are required to be used to support final electricity consumers, while the proceeds from the temporary solidarity contribution were utilised for the third electricity credit scheme.

As set out in the programme for Government, the carbon tax will increase on an annual basis to 2030. This will raise an estimated €9.5 billion over that period. The Government is committed to ensuring this is a socially progressive measure, by ring-fencing revenues to support those at risk of energy poverty, as well as retrofitting programmes, agri-environmental supports for farmers, and just transition goals. This has enabled record levels of funding for the national retrofit plan and particularly for energy efficiency upgrades for lower-income homeowners funded through the SEAI and local authority retrofit schemes. These upgrades reduce energy usage and bills, and increase comfort and well-being in the home.

The Government is also working to revise the energy poverty action plan. It is considering recommendations made through a recent consultation which ran from March to May 2024, and feedback received at the energy poverty stakeholder forum held on 24 June. This revised plan will set out a wide range of clear, time-bound actions aimed at tackling energy poverty with appropriate governance and evaluation.

Renewable electricity is now at the core of Ireland's energy system. The Government has introduced a suite of measures to support community and domestic ownership of renewables. These include the microgeneration support scheme, which last year supported more than 22,000 households to install solar PV, and the SRESS, the second phase of which was launched in May. A solar PV scheme for vulnerable customers registered as being dependent on electrically powered assistive devices is also under way. This €20 million scheme is targeted to provide direct support to medically vulnerable customers relying on lifesaving equipment, who may have limited opportunity to reduce their demand.

These schemes complement the grid-scale investments in renewable generation under the RESS, which are critical to securing Irish energy independence and reducing emissions in the electricity sector.

9 o’clock

A renewables-led system is a critical element of Ireland's decarbonisation strategy. Increased deployment of indigenous renewable generation is key to achieving our national, EU, and global climate action targets, while providing us with a clean, affordable and secure supply of electricity and delivering green jobs to the economy.

The Government is committed to providing support to the people and businesses affected by the unprecedented high energy costs in the short term, while making the critical strategic investments required to decarbonise our society and economy. I welcome this debate and I thank Deputies from all sides for their contributions.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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The next speaker is Deputy Ryan who will share time with Deputies Gould and O'Rourke.

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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I thank my colleague Deputy O'Rourke for the opportunity to shed a little light on this, although perhaps not for everyone. Ireland's electricity prices have been spiralling skywards while the Government has sat on its hands, choosing to give energy credits that swelled the coffers and profits of energy providers while leaving electricity prices at eye-watering levels. Ordinary working people are struggling to find the extra €150 a month while ESB profits have ballooned 30% from €676 million in 2022 to a mind-blowing €868 million in 2023. No wonder more than 550,000 Irish households live in energy poverty. An older lady in my hometown of Monasterevin, in the constituency of the Minister of State-----

Martin Heydon (Kildare South, Fine Gael)
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That is right.

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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Over two weeks her pay-as-you-go meter cost her €500 just to run an air-to-water heating system. How affordable is this on an old age pension? The Minister of State and I both know it is not. A young mother with the same heating system was left paying a bill of more than €3,000 to keep her house warm. It is no wonder we have food banks, and we have the Minister of State's colleague in Monasterevin looking after the food bank to fix the problem the Government created. We could not make it up. Spot the inequalities.

On the third day the Lord said "Let there be light" but he would not have done so if he was listening to the Government. There will not be light as people cannot afford it. Successive Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil Governments systematically privatising our energy market have left us with no energy security, no price controls and at the whim of profiteering international corporations. It is time for change and we call for complete reform of the electricity market. We call for changes such as giving the regulator the power to effectively regulate. We all know where weak regulations got us in 2008. The wealth should be reinvested instead of allowing corporate stakeholders to cream off the profits. There should also be a fairer retrofit scheme. The Minister of State and I both know what Kildare County Council is like on retrofitting. It is all very fine to put in an air-to-water system but when the windows are falling out of the house effectively it is heating the garden. This needs to be addressed.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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In an attempt to be helpful, if a constituent was coming to me about an electricity bill of €2,000 or €3,000 I would tell them to go to their supplier first to question whether there is something seriously wrong on that front.

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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Fair point, thank you.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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A gentleman came to my clinic last week. He is a lovely man in his early 70s. He is a fine fresh guy. He said he pays €20 a week out of his pension to put towards his electricity bill. At one stage last year he was more than €700 in credit but because the price rises kept coming, the €20 a week is not enough to meet the bills coming in. He has slowly run into arrears which have built up bill after bill. Now he is worried that he will be disconnected. This is an elderly man who worked all his life. He lives alone. His fear is that he will be disconnected and left without electricity. He asked me what supports there are for pensioners and what supports there are for people.

About a month ago when I was canvassing I knocked on the door of lady where I went in for a cup of tea. As the Minister of State knows, normally when we are canvassing we are running but this lady invited me in and I knew her husband who had passed away approximately nine months earlier. She told me that she could not pay the bills on one pension and that they barely survived where there was the two of them. Unfortunately he passed away. She does not want to be a burden on her children. She has a beautiful home. She is a beautiful lady. She was in the depths of depression. Not alone did she lose the man she loved but now she cannot survive. This is on the Minister of State's watch. It is on the Government's watch. It has left these big companies make extraordinary profits. The Minister of State said it himself a few minutes ago. It was not us who left them do it; it was the Government.

What we are saying is that there has been a complete failure by the Government with regard to regulation. If there were ever those who should not get involved in regulation, they are Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. We have seen what light-touch regulation did. It destroyed the country during the financial crisis. Then they did the exact same with the big energy companies. The Minister of State gave a figure of €352 million which was received from the solidarity windfall tax. At the same time the ESB made €868 million. This is one example. What the Government is doing is taxing people because the energy bills are higher. The big energy companies are making more money and people are living in poverty on the Government's watch. It should be ashamed of itself.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank Deputies for their contributions over the course of the debate. I am disappointed the Government has tabled a countermotion. I do not accept its rationale or argument. We have to look at the evidence, which is that large numbers of people are in arrears with their electricity bills, with 10% of domestic and commercial electricity customers and 25% of domestic and commercial gas customers in arrears. Energy poverty is at an all-time high. We have imperfect measures for all of these things. If we look at those working in the sector, such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Social Justice Ireland and MABS, we see there is a crisis in terms of the cost of living. The cost of energy is in the middle of this.

The Government congratulates itself on the delivery of renewables. A number of people raised the issue of the Government missing its targets and issues with regard to planning, ports not being up to standard and the ownership models. Sinn Féin recognises the role of the private sector but the State should take a leading role with State ownership and community ownership. This is what we mean by turning our natural resources into national wealth. It is a fair point that state companies in France and Norway own more of our wind resources at present than the Irish State and this needs to be addressed.

With regard to regulation, I have not heard anything from the Government on why it does not believe it makes sense for the regulator to act on regulating standing charges to address the issue of the public service obligation, as was indicated by Deputy Nash, or to act on the issue of network charges to ensure they are progressive instead of regressive. This should be done. I do not believe there is any argument against it. I have not heard an argument from the Government in this regard or what it will do about it.

We have done a lot of work in the area of retrofitting in my office and we have prepared counterproposals. I have to say I feel it is one of the issues we will reflect on in years to come, when serious questions will be asked about the national retrofitting programme. It is a statement of fact that it is a massive transfer of wealth. It is a challenge to get to the nub of the issues here when we throw out large figures. The Minister has specifically said we have the highest level of retrofitting per capita. This may be a statement of fact but for me the question is who is benefiting from this massive spend of taxpayers' money. Without doubt it is the case that it is not being spent on those people who are most in need. People in a solid fuel home, a council house, on the warmer home scheme or just above the eligibility threshold for that scheme see no benefit in terms of the national retrofitting programme.

We are seeing significant roll-out of domestic solar panels and that is welcome, but who is it going to? It is delivering a lot of B2 BERs because it is going on homes that are already cosy and well insulated. We need to drill into the details of the national retrofitting programme. When that is done, time and again, we see - these are not Sinn Féin's words but we agree with them - a transfer of wealth. There is an affordability gap, which has been identified by many groups that work with people who live in energy poverty. We welcome the spend under the scheme, although Sinn Féin would spend more, raise the money in a different way and deliver better outcomes.

The heart of this motion is about delivering on the potential to manage the energy transition and to deliver energy security and independence and reduced electricity costs for households and businesses and lift people out of energy poverty. The Government is failing to deliver on all that potential and it is a crying shame.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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In accordance with Standing Order 80(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time on Wednesday, 26 June 2024.