Dáil debates

Wednesday, 13 October 2010

6:00 pm

Photo of Kathleen LynchKathleen Lynch (Cork North Central, Labour)

We are facing into those times again. As children, we could tell walking up the street the families whose electricity had been cut off. Those houses would be in darkness or lit by a few candles.

The regulator acts on instructions from the Government; he is not a free agent. He tells us he is imposing a 5% surcharge on fuel even though people cannot pay their bills as it is. The regulator has also stipulated that the two main energy suppliers must rebrand their businesses. ESB is the most recognised brand in the country, a brand that is recognised internationally as a state-of-the-art quality company. The regulator is living in 2006 and needs to be told, "Honey, that ain't happening" because we cannot afford it.

Whatever else we do with the proposed €80 million, it will not be rebranding. We should begin investing it in fuel poverty which is a particular issue for the elderly, people with young children and the many unemployed who have never experienced times like these and who do not know what it is to walk down a street and see every house in darkness. Moreover, in the past people did not have a television in every room and mobile telephones to plug in every night. We cannot live without electricity in this day and age. We cannot live without heating because our homes are not sufficiently insulated. We are living on an island off Europe where it gets cold and it is damp. The Government is a disgrace. It must begin to give consideration to those for whom it is responsible, the poor and the newly poor. The Green Party will never think of them because they do not know what it is to be poor. I had hoped to say different of Fianna Fáil.

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