Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I compliment People Before Profit-Solidarity on tabling this very important motion at this time. The increase in the cost of fuel impacts on everybody, including businesses, consumers and especially those in fuel poverty. When we talk about this and about what is going wrong, we sometimes put the cart before the horse. We closed down two power generation stations without having an alternative in place. Likewise, we are talking about offshore wind energy and reaping the benefits of all of this green energy but we do not have a snowball's chance of having anything in place within the next ten years. At the same time, we are encouraging people to put in air-to-water or other all-electric heating systems for their houses. The cost of heating these houses is now rising after people invested in what they thought were green measures. A lot of the time, we have knee-jerk reactions to climate action without considering that, when we take out a process, we need another in place to take over. We can see where ceasing production of peat moss for horticulture has led us. Thousands of tonnes of stuff are now being imported every week when we have the very same stuff here but have stopped producing it. Something has gone wrong there. Putting the cart before the horse does not work.

We have also brought in this carbon tax and applied it to everybody. People are talking about a just transition. There is no just transition for people living in Ireland who have to pay more to put fuel in their cars while also paying more for electricity. They have to pay more all of the time. There is very little public transport. The national development plan talks about dealing with all of this over the next ten years. We are moving ourselves towards a perfect storm by not looking logically at what we need to do to get the just transition right while also getting climate action right. We cannot have climate action without understanding the consequences that action will have for people. If we change energy sources, we have to make sure we do not cut off a source we have until the new one is up and running and delivering.

The issue of planning permission for solar panels was highlighted by Deputy Berry. This is a farce. We have an enormous number of community buildings, schools and facilities like these that could be used to generate electricity but planning permission must be sought, which can cost thousands of euro, so it is not done. That is what is wrong. Many people have gone into microgeneration and are feeding energy back into the grid but are not getting paid for it. They understood that they were to get paid for it from 1 July but are still none the wiser as to when they will be paid, having invested good money for the sake of climate action and doing things right. It seems that, when someone does something right, the rug is pulled out from under him or her. People are now telling others who are inquiring not to go there.

Next Tuesday is budget day. Immediate action must be taken. There must be an increase in the fuel allowance payable to all people in fuel poverty. The range of payments that qualify for fuel allowance must be expanded. That needs to be looked at, as must be the eligibility threshold for those seeking the allowance. If that is not our immediate response, we are only paying lip service to the issues facing us, as usual.

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