Dáil debates

Wednesday, 6 October 2021

Energy Prices: Motion [Private Members]

 

11:27 am

Photo of Catherine ConnollyCatherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank People Before Profit-Solidarity for tabling this very detailed motion. It is a reasonable and rational motion. Deputy Barry's call for the democratisation of energy caught my attention. It is a wonderful concept. I do not see any sign of it on the part of Government. That would be great. I note the Minister is nodding. It would be the beginning of the solution to our problems.

Statistics catch my eye, in particular the one set out by People Before Profit-Solidarity in relation to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul research of March 2021 that 19% of people cut back on heating and electricity due to cost, including 42% of those with an illness or disability and 36% of lone-parent families. In addition to that, I come from a city where there is a major housing crisis. In Galway, rents increased by 14.2% in the 12 months to quarter 2 of 2021. In the same city, the Simon Communities of Ireland regularly produces reports entitled, Locked Out of the Market, to make it easy for us politicians to understand. One is locked out of the market if one cannot get a house within the HAP guidelines. In Galway, there are no such properties available. According to the ESRI, one in six households were already in energy poverty in 2019, which is pre-pandemic. This means people have to tackle rising rental costs as well as rising energy costs.

The EirGrid generation capacity statement sets out demand uncertainty under a number of bullet points, including that demand is driven by economic activity, assumptions on energy efficiency and the growth of large energy users and data centres. I say that by way of response to some of the comments about us being off the deep end or, should I say, off the grid, when we talk about how demanding data centres are. The statement further sets out key observations in regard to Ireland and states that long-term system electricity demand in Ireland is increasing and is forecast to increase significantly due to the expected - not unexpected - expansion of many large energy users, in particular data centres. I would welcome a proper discussion on data centres. We have to have them in our economy and the silly argument that we are all against them is ridiculous. We have to start to ask questions when we have 70 functioning data centres here and, I think, 30 more in the pipeline, which will use 25% plus of our energy in 2030.

I will return to the specific motion in the minute I have remaining. This is a very basic motion, in my opinion. It seeks an increase in the fuel allowance, it calls on the Government to act under existing legislation in regard to capping prices and stopping increases and it points to other countries that have successfully done this, not being known for their socialism. Why is this important? It is important because the market system has not worked. I am tired of Members on this side of the House being accused of ideology. The ideology of every successive Government, in particular Fianna Fáil in government with the former Progressive Democrats, Fine Gael and now the Green Party, is that markets will provide and we will help them. That has not helped the housing situation. We are providing over €1 billion in HAP and other subsidies and all that is doing is making the housing crisis worse and raising prices. The exact same model here will help with the fuel allowance. It will increase it a little in the budget but it will do so without facing what is the important point. The important thing is that we as a people should have control of our energy supply. That is what we need.

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