Results 861-880 of 1,099,168 for in 'Dáil debates' OR in 'Committee meetings' (speaker:Tom Kitt OR speaker:Niall Collins OR speaker:Jennifer Carroll MacNeill OR speaker:Mattie McGrath OR speaker:Johnny Mythen OR speaker:Chris Andrews OR speaker:Heather Humphreys OR speaker:Marc Ó Cathasaigh OR speaker:Alan Kelly OR speaker:Imelda Munster OR speaker:Ciarán Cannon OR speaker:Joe Flaherty OR speaker:Catherine Martin OR speaker:Alan Farrell OR speaker:Richard O'Donoghue OR speaker:Réada Cronin OR speaker:Brendan Howlin OR speaker:Richard Boyd Barrett OR speaker:Leo Varadkar OR speaker:Darragh O'Brien OR speaker:Cathal Berry OR speaker:Gary Gannon OR speaker:Paschal Donohoe OR speaker:Matt Shanahan OR speaker:Micheál Martin OR speaker:Catherine Murphy OR speaker:Gino Kenny OR speaker:Michael Collins)

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Maurice Quinlivan: The €250 energy credit does not go far enough, as my colleagues have said. It is quite simply a gesture and does nothing to address runaway energy costs in this State under this Government. The Government has put together a once-off stunt while it has studiously avoided addressing the outrageous burden that these energy costs place on workers and their families. Householders are...

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Collins: I am not going to stand here and say people will not welcome the rebate for energy costs. Of course, they will welcome it in very difficult times with the rising costs of energy, which are sky-rocketing to an extraordinary level. Without the Government tackling the energy companies as to where they can make savings, I know people can make savings by ringing around. I contacted a telephone...

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Mattie McGrath: The Government is failing to deal with the real issues. I am not going to say that I do not welcome the once-off payments and double payments but it is nothing short of an election gimmick. The real problem is the cost of energy and the gouging by the energy companies. We have the highest gas, oil and electricity prices in Europe. Why is that? This is what needs to be tackled instead of...

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Richard O'Donoghue: Is the election coming? All you have to do is look at the Government's social media to find people saying the handouts have started to try to fool the people of Ireland. After the mistruth when the Government said it was going to go the full term, it will be interesting how the Taoiseach handles this when he comes back after he told everyone in the country the Government was going to go the...

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Michael Healy-Rae: This is not robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is robbing Paul to pay back Paul and robbing Paulette to pay back Paulette. It is crazy beyond belief. It is obviously a gimmick. If the Government was serious about doing anything about energy costs, it would have gone back to 2016 when it supported Shannon LNG and when Shannon LNG was in the programme for Government and would have left it there....

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Ruairi Ó Murchú: I do not think there is anybody out there who will not welcome some element of help regarding payments. I accept there is a significant number of people who will not need this, but any of us who knock on doors have come across people in last while who are under severe pressure. The Government is talking about €250 as a one-off payment, whereas we should be talking about €450...

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Cormac Devlin: I welcome the opportunity to examine the Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024. The climate action committee waived pre-legislative scrutiny of it, as it has done for other Bills, to ensure the credits land on time for householders and that the work behind the scenes can be done for householders to benefit. The €250 energy credit will be spread over...

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Martin Browne: What is clear after the budget is that there is no Government plan to alleviate the pressures placed on households by the energy companies. While short-term measures are needed, Sinn Féin knows that to address the dysfunction in the Irish energy market, longer term measures also need to be taken. Wholesale energy prices have fallen by 75% since their peak, yet households are still...

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Of course, nobody who receives this credit before or after Christmas will be sorry to do so. As the ESRI has pointed out, however, the net effect of the Government’s budget is that some of the least well-off and most vulnerable households will be marginally less well off. That is pretty shameful. Given the astonishing, unprecedented budget surpluses and, of course, the Apple...

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Martin Kenny: Energy prices and the cost of fuel are some of the biggest issues facing people. I am always intrigued when I hear many of the various organisations that comment on the economy warning against investment in infrastructure and how it could create inflation. The truth is that the two biggest drivers of inflation in this country are the costs of housing and energy. Investing in those two...

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Jennifer Whitmore: This is the third year in a row debating emergency-----

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Gerald Nash: It is the fourth year in a row.

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Jennifer Whitmore: This is the fourth year in a row in which we are debating emergency measures and talking about one-off payments. At what stage is it no longer an emergency and a one-off payment? The fact it is being referred to in this way is indicative of a Government that has far too much money with no vision, ideas or real solutions to these problems which face so many people. If the Government had...

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Thomas Gould: We in Sinn Féin recognise that ordinary people are really struggling with the cost-of-living crisis and the failure of this Government to properly tackle it. We have the highest energy bills in Europe, including high gas bills. People are really struggling. That is why we believe the €250 the Government is offering does not go far enough. We believe that at least €450...

Electricity Costs (Emergency Measures) Domestic Accounts Bill 2024: Second Stage (9 Oct 2024)

Gerald Nash: I am pleased to speak on this Bill for the Labour Party. The State will have spent, I think, close to or in excess of €2 billion in energy credit payments since the onset of the energy crisis. We know only too well that this is by definition an untargeted measure. It is universal in nature and has been explained away as a once-off emergency measure to help people through a temporary...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: On the housing issue, I fully agree with the comments about the labour shortage and bottlenecks and the need to address these issues as a matter of urgency. They need to be addressed in multiple ways. We need more apprentices and more people trained in the construction trades. Immigrants or returning Irish people can help us solve this issue. The Irish might come back if we can...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: It is just coincidence.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: Okay. I have made my point. I would just ask Mr. Madouros to look a little bit closer into the evidence on that last point. Among others, the Department of Finance and the Department of Public Expenditure, NDP Delivery and Reform have done studies on this in which they did not really find planning as a major problem. The Irish Government Economic and Evaluation Service, IGEES, report, for...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Engagement with the Central Bank of Ireland (9 Oct 2024)

Richard Boyd Barrett: I would also raise the question of finance other than domestic banks limiting our exposure., but it also has other impacts. Mr. Madouros should consider them when he is making those comments. There are clearly other impacts of that, and I am the view that they are, arguably, seriously detrimental to our ability to resolve the housing crisis. On the consumer issues I wanted to ask about,...