Mary White (Carlow-Kilkenny, Green Party)

I am delighted to contribute to this debate, even though much of our political energy in recent days has been spent on the implications and repercussions of the Lisbon treaty referendum. While there are many items on the domestic agenda, in the context of the Labour Party motion, I want to discuss fuel prices, fuel poverty and what can be done to help families on low incomes. The motion refers to the danger of fuel poverty for such families as a result of increased fuel and energy prices. Everybody knows that those prices have only gone upwards. The increasing prices typified last month by the largest ever increase in the price of oil in one day create fears of greater increases in the coming months and put pressure on our competitiveness.

Yesterday, a report published by Sustainable Energy Ireland made for grim reading as we learned that people are becoming increasingly dependent on electrical goods, with more and more domestic appliances switched on at any given time, and average household electricity use increased by 62% between 1990 and 2006, during which period household fuel use decreased by 0.3%. Something will have to give. It is not usual for a family of four children and two adults to have six television sets, four computers, DVD players, PlayStations, tumble driers and other appliances. We have never had more appliances in our homes and it costs money to leave them on. The Power of One advertising campaign advises us to unplug electrical devices at night because it would save us a whopping €500 per annum.

The Green Party in Government has introduced a range of schemes which are helping and encouraging domestic energy efficiency. They include the home energy saving scheme for existing houses and micro-generation programmes which allow users to generate green electricity for their own use. The greener homes scheme has entered a new phase which includes housing grants for those on lower incomes and grants for schools and community schemes. The Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources has also doubled the support price mechanism for critical bioenergy power production systems which will attract the farming sector through the use of anaerobic digestion, waste slurries and straws to create green electricity. He has also announced a range of price supports and grants to encourage people to establish businesses or conduct research in the renewable energy sector. Savings of 20% could be delivered in the medium term.

I recently visited Güssing in north-east Austria, a town which, until recently, suffered from mass migration and low employment levels. It now boasts full employment and is one of the richest areas of Austria as a result of becoming the first European town to cut carbon emissions by 90%. Ireland could achieve this objective by producing heat, power and fuels from the sun, wood and agricultural products. We should take action to encourage our farmers to use waste straws and slurries and anaerobic digestion to create heat. Given the need to provide jobs, particularly in rural areas and the agriculture, construction, energy production and training sectors, employment opportunities are considerable.

Güssing has become one of the richest areas in Austria and has attracted 50 new companies to the area to support and sell extra electricity to other parts of the country. We should take the town as example as there is no reason we could not emulate it by supplying cheap electricity to heat local factories, workplaces, homes and public facilities, thus improving Ireland's competitiveness and addressing the problem of low incomes arising from fuel poverty. The latter is a major worry among older people. Carlow, which plans to become the first green energy town in Ireland, will try to copy the Güssing model.

As Sustainable Energy Ireland has informed us, energy consumption continues to increase. On the question of whether this trend can continue, the answer is a definite "No". Sustainable energy and the creation of fuel security are the way forward. The Government, with the Green Party as a coalition partner, is driving forward innovative and proactive responses to the changing environmental and economic climate.

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