Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward the motion at a very opportune time when we are threatened with outages and exorbitant costs for electricity, energy and fuel such as diesel, petrol and heating oil because of carbon tax and the many other charges that people are not prepared for. Electricity costs are up 19%. Has the Minister of State ever heard the phrase "You cannot get blood out of a turnip"? People will not be able to pay for electricity or energy to keep themselves warm this winter.

The Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, will be aware that two weeks ago his party colleague, the Minister, Deputy Ryan, said there was no problem with energy supply. He came out yesterday to say that we will be in trouble for the next four or five years and that we may have outages. This does not inspire confidence in him, the leader of the Green Party, or in the Government.

Everything is supposed to be electric, such as electric cars, but we have no charging points and we do not even have enough electricity. The Government reinstated Moneypoint workers to whom they had given redundancy. The Government has been caught with its trousers down because it did not realise we would run out of electricity when it closed Bord na Móna and closed Moneypoint.

I am asking the Government to bring back the workers to Bord na Móna to ensure the people of this country do not have to suffer power outages. Many people do not know what a data centre is, but if the lights go out in this country, the Minister of State, Deputy Ossian Smyth, and the Government will know what they are.

See this speech in context