Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I am acutely aware that when we discuss this topic we are talking about matters of life and death. If the Government continues to refuse to intervene boldly to protect people from energy price rises, not only will that severely eat into the budgets of large numbers of households but people will die. That is not hyperbole from these benches. There is such a thing as excess winter deaths. I have been trying to get my head around the concept of excess winter deaths in preparation for this debate. As I understand it, it involves looking at the number of deaths that take place in the State for a period of months, basically, December to March, and comparing it to the number for comparable periods in terms of time, not comparable periods in terms of temperature and cold weather, and seeing how many extra deaths occur. The numbers go up and down in any given year, but they generally tend to be between 1,500 and 2,000. Think about that. It is shocking. Among women, there tend to be more deaths as a result of respiratory issues and among men there tend to be more deaths as a result of cardiovascular issues. However, the end result is the same.

This is an issue that overwhelmingly, although not exclusively, affects elderly people. If one is elderly, one is seven times more likely to be hospitalised during a cold snap in those winter months than if one is aged between 18 and 44 years. If one is poor, one is two and a half times more likely to be hospitalised in that period than somebody from one of the wealthiest communities. These are issues that affect a broad swathe of people in society, but the effect is overwhelmingly concentrated on people who are older and people who are poorer. They suffer not merely from the cold weather, and there is not much we can do about that, but also from fuel poverty. Fuel poverty is an issue here, and it is a matter of life and death. To put it in context, more than 3,500 people lost their lives in the Troubles in Northern Ireland, which played out over a period of decades. That number would be overtaken in a couple of years by the number of excess winter deaths we have in this country, which is, by the way, the highest in Europe. That is a result of fuel poverty, which is a legacy of capitalism and a legacy of successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael led governments, even though they might include the Green Party as a decoration in this one.

To show that these problems are man-made, let us consider a case example. The ESB, an extremely successful company, was a State company. It kept prices low for decades, in large measure to facilitate the industrialisation of this country after 1958. When Mr. Lemass and the Government wanted to secure foreign direct investment the selling point was not necessarily the corporation tax at that time. The selling point included a number of things, but cheap electricity was a big part of it. The ESB was a not-for-profit company until 2001. That changed in 2001 when it ceased to be a not-for-profit company. Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrates, PDs, were in power. Were they under pressure from the European Union's neoliberal regulations? Yes, they were, but they embraced them with enthusiasm, and the private operators began to come into the market. To be clear about what happened then, the ESB was no longer a not-for-profit company. As the private operators could not compete with the low prices being charged by the State company, the State company's prices had to rise in order to let private operators into the market, and in they came.

There was another round of deregulation in 2011. We were told the ESB would now be able to compete with the private operators and that if people shopped around, competition would drive down profit. It did in my neck. Prices in this country were below the European Union average up to 2011, but by the third and fourth quarters of 2019 the price of electricity here was 11% above the EU average and the price of gas was 12% above the EU average. The ESB's operating profits for 2019 were €682 million and for 2020 they were €616 million. The combined profit over a mere two years was €1.3 billion. Imagine if we turned back the clock to 2001 and the ESB was a not-for-profit company and we used not even all, but a significant portion, of that €1.3 billion to cut the prices of electricity. They could be cut by a serious amount. The problem here is that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments, with the Green Party also in government, are presiding over the market. Market madness is what we are dealing with here and it must be tackled.

Can anything be done? Some steps have been taken, not nearly enough, under pressure from below by governments in Greece, Italy and Spain. In Spain, VAT was cut from 21% to 10%, tariffs on bills were cut from 5% to 0.5%, there were no disconnections for ten months and there was a levy on power plants of €2.6 billion, with the break given to the consumers. I do not believe that goes far enough, and there are people in Spain who do not believe it goes far enough. I understand the rank and file of the Podemos organisation, with the support of some of its members of parliament, believe there should be a national public energy company, in other words, not just tax concessions but public ownership. Contrast that to the absolutely pitiful response of the Government in this State. It is leaving people prey to the ravages of market forces. People in this country, mainly elderly and mainly poor people, will die as a result of the Government's policies. That is a fact. Is the Government going to change its policies? The Minister of State might throw up his hands and ask what can be done. This motion spells out quite clearly some steps that can be taken. Incidentally, one that we omitted to mention - I will say it is a sin of omission - is that there should be a complete ban on electricity disconnections. There were 1,000 electricity disconnections and 400 gas disconnections in this country in 2019. That has to be knocked on the head and brought to zero.

We must have maximum prices. The Minister has the power to do it if he declares an emergency under the legislation that is in place. He should declare an emergency. We must abolish the carbon tax. If the Government is not prepared to abolish its precious carbon tax, it should at least freeze it for this year. The fuel allowance has to increase. We suggest an increase of €15, which is quite a modest figure, as a minimum. The allowance must be extended for an extra four weeks and it should be available to all social welfare recipients. The ESB should go back to being a not-for-profit company. The energy sector should not be run by private business on a for-profit basis. It should be run on a public basis for the needs of all and for the needs of society.

We have had enough of this market madness. We have had enough of this precarity and this shadow hanging over so many homes coming into the winter, with the threat of energy prices and, for many people, the threat of illness and possibly death as well. This must be ended with bold, radical, socialist policies. I want the Minister of State to respond to the specific proposals, particularly that of which he has been a champion, namely, the carbon tax. How the hell can the Government increase the carbon tax on the scale it plans this year while people have this crisis hanging over them?

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