Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I read the Minister of State’s opening speech. It beggars belief that we are in this Chamber talking about our own energy capabilities versus profit. The Minister of State noted that €118 million has been allocated to fuel poverty this year. I think it will increase next year, so we know that it is happening. Yet we have the capability to be the Dubai of Europe when it comes to producing our own energy. The most important thing here is this country has the capability to be self-sustaining and we could have the advantage of alternative energies such as green hydrogen to produce enough energy that we could export it. Yet, we are in a situation where we have no real control over our own energy because of the private sector. Anything that is privatised is normally about profit.

The Proclamation and our Irish Constitution state that what we have in this country is for our own citizens and should be of benefit to our citizens, yet we do not have that. I have not heard anybody mention geothermal while we have spoken about energy, and this beggars belief, especially on the Green Party side. Geothermal heating costs practically nothing. We are putting in all these air heaters and all this natural gas, but geothermal just requires a three quarter inch plastic pipe being placed a metre down in either the back garden or front garden. It can be filled with water and there will be heating in the winter and cooling in the summer. Why are we not looking at these options? It is because companies cannot make a profit from them. That is it - full stop. I put it into houses 20 years ago.

The other issue I want to raise, which has already been mentioned, is pay-as-you-go meters. This is the biggest freeze since 2010 and we still have no clarity for people who use pay-as-you-go meters. I have seen, and people have rung me about it, where it has gone from an average of €3.25 per day even on the pay-as-you-go ESB meters to €6.66 per day. This is an atrocious jump. It is obviously profiteering again.

While we are on the topic of our own resources in this country, an issue nobody has spoken about and which I want to flag relates to oil rigs, gas rigs and wind turbines out at sea. I was informed late last night that English fishing vessels are patrolling those rigs. Why can our Irish fishing vessels not patrol those rigs and wind turbines?

It is a real bugbear of mine that we have the capability of being world leaders in producing energy, but we are arguing about who is making a profit, who gets the job, or who gets the backhander or the jobs for the boys. It should be a matter of the capability to produce and export for our nation, and not for profit. Our prices, as was mentioned a while ago, are among the highest in Europe. It is extortionate and the real issue is that there is massive poverty. Fuel poverty is a real issue in this country. What worries me most is that the most vulnerable are the most effected. Deputy Gould has said earlier, if you can find your social welfare officer, fair play to you, but when you do find them, it will take up to six weeks, which is too late. The system is broken.

See this speech in context