Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank People Before Profit for tabling this timely and important motion. For some families this matter is critical. In recent weeks, there have been many motions and speeches and much discussion in this Chamber, including on parliamentary questions, on the issue of energy security, management and prices and what the Government is doing to address the crisis we are facing into this winter.

My own party, the Social Democrats, put forward a motion on the data centres and those issues were debated quite robustly at that time. It is quite clear that the Government is sleepwalking - or walking out of the Chamber, as the case may be - as the debate on energy continues and is sleepwalking into a crisis of its own making when it comes to energy and the impact that this will have on families.

Some families in this country will see rises of €800 in their energy over the coming winter and the reality for many families is that they will have to choose between feeding their children, paying the rent, paying childcare or heating their homes. That is just not acceptable in this day and age.

We know that fuel poverty supports will be the key focus in this year’s budget but we have not yet heard the full details around this. I was shocked to see that even in my own constituency of Wicklow, 9,500 households receive fuel allowance at present, which goes to show the extent of the problem and the number and the different types of families who are very vulnerable when it comes to fuel poverty.

Significantly more people will be impacted this winter. People who would normally be able to manage their heating costs will find it very difficult. The Government needs to take a broader look at the fuel allowance and the temporary measures that can be put in place to assist those families because of that. For example, families in receipt of the working family payment cannot access the fuel allowance at present. This is something that needs to be addressed and the Social Democrats are proposing that those families are taken into account for the fuel allowance. Jobseekers also have to wait 15 months before they can claim this support. The Social Democrats believe that this 15-month gap needs to be removed.

We will also be calling for an extension to the eligibility criteria for the fuel allowance and expanding it from the months of November into February to cover the whole winter season. The Government needs to look at ways to assist those families who may not necessarily or traditionally access that fuel allowance. There will be, in particular, many working families who will be hit very badly this winter in this regard.

We also need to ensure that families or individuals are not disconnected this winter. They cannot be forced to feel the brunt of this energy hike to the point where they do not have access to any heating or fuel. It is important that a moratorium is put in place. I requested and spoke to the CRU yesterday. It was open to reviewing it but I ask that the Government engage with the commission on that issue.

There is also the issue of self-disconnection which has happened already. We have seen during the Covid-19 period that this was happening quite a good deal. It is not something that is monitored. There needs to be a mechanism put in place to monitor self-disconnections whereby people themselves just stop using their own energy in order that they are not disconnected formally. It is important that that mechanism is monitored and that arrangements are put in place in order that we have the statistics and the data on it and know the exact extent of the problem that people are facing.

When we are talking about energy crisis, we cannot separate it from the climate crisis and how our solutions and policies will address both. It is very important that when talking about energy that we also talk about just transition because that is a key part of it.

Moving from the current situation to where we reduce our CO2 emissions will require a disruptive transformation of our energy system. It cannot be the case or allowed to happen that those who are least capable of addressing this issue are burdened with doing so. Just transition has to be key component of what the Government does. Unfortunately, I have not seen that to date. There has been a hesitancy within the Government to recognise and incorporate the principles of just transition, whether that was into the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act or into policies. When we talk about just transition, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications usually refers to the work that is being done in the midlands. Just transition cannot be specific to one geographical area but needs to cover the entire country. It also needs to be broader than simply referring to the workforce. It needs to be talking about just transition for communities.

In recent weeks, I introduced the Just Transition (Worker and Community Environmental Rights) Bill, which was a Bill that the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, originally introduced a few years ago. It has not been progressed. I hope the Government would support such a Bill, given that it was a member of the Government, namely, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications who originally introduced this Bill earlier and spoke so passionately about the importance of having it in place. If that Bill was passed, workers, communities and areas would have an opportunity to hold the Government to account over decisions and any inaction that they perceive which could lead to situations such as fuel poverty.

In dealing with just transition, we are also talking about who we prioritise when we deal with our energy or climate actions. It is clear if anyone has been listening to the debate on data centres over the past number of weeks that the Government is prioritising corporations above the needs of communities when it comes to data centres. A pause on the development of data centres was a very moderate evidence-based solution that could have enabled the Government to bring in the measures that would assist and ensure that data centres do not completely override the needs of communities, as we have seen to date. The Social Democrats called for a moratorium on that development and, unfortunately, that was not accepted by the Government. That indicates where the Government’s priority is. Communities and individuals will be expected to go to great expense in their own right in order to move to electric vehicles and to retrofit their homes. These are not cheap things to do and even if one receives subsidies and grants these are still expensive measures and yet the Government is not requiring the same effort from the large corporations in respect of data centres. There are questions as to how much these centres contribute to our society and economy. That is something that also needs to be addressed.

I want to recognise the work of the Solidarity-People Before Profit Party have put into this motion today and I hope that it forms part of the discussion that the Government will be taking into the budget negotiations in order to fight hard for individuals who will find it difficult over the coming months to deal with the energy crisis.

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