Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

People are living in fear. They are worrying whether they will have enough money to heat their homes this winter, enough electricity to turn on the lights and enough money to put fuel in the car. Household energy costs have gone through the roof. It is estimated that energy costs to homes will rise by as much as €800 this year. All these increases in energy prices are separate from the carbon taxes on gas, home heating oil, coal and briquettes. So far this year, 25 separate electricity and gas price rises have been announced by 14 providers. The cost of petrol and diesel has increased by 24.8% since this time last year. This will seriously impact on the elderly, those on a fixed income and the less well-off. What measures will the Government take to offset the impact of soaring energy prices on these people?

Two data centres are already operating in County Meath, while two more have been granted planning permission and another is going through the planning process. These data centres will use the same amount of energy annually as almost 1 million homes.

Ireland has started to import peat from other European countries to meet demand here while stopping people cutting turf for domestic use. A couple of weeks ago, a ship carrying 400,000 tonnes of peat from Latvia in eastern Europe, 3,000 km away, made its way to Drogheda Port. The destination was Rathowen in north County Westmeath. Bringing this peat from Latvia involved enormous effort in terms of cost, manpower and time. How does it affect families? It affects them in their pockets as the cost to produce the peat locally would have been less than a quarter of the price. The bog in Latvia emits carbon just as bogs in Ireland do, in addition to the carbon emitted as a result of the transportation. The bog in Latvia is 100 km from the port in Riga. Some 200 trucks made that 200 km round trip. That is 40,000 km of diesel. Fuel was then needed to transport it 3,000 km to Drogheda and then to Westmeath. In the coming months, more and more shipments of peat will land in Ireland. This is farcical.

Most people concede that we have to make changes in how we live and work in order to reduce our carbon footprint. However, these changes have to be well thought out. Imported peat has a carbon footprint as large as its price tag.

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