Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

At the outset, I thank Brian Ó Domhnaill and Mairéad McGrath for their help and work on this most important motion. I also wish the leader of our group, Deputy Mattie McGrath, good luck and health. I hope he gets back on the road to good health very quickly.

Through this motion, as a group, we are saying that Dáil Éireann should recognise that as the second winter of the pandemic approaches, we are continuing with a cost of living crisis on a number of fronts. The Government's climate action policies are having a profound negative socioeconomic impact on everybody's lives. The report of the key operator of the national grid, EirGrid, warned that Ireland could face electricity deficits - in other words, blackouts - for the next five winters EirGrid has predicted that low availability of power plants in Ireland will likely contribute to the energy issues faced by the country this winter.

The Government has continuously said that we should use more and more electricity. At the same time, it has shut down the plants that generate this electricity. It just does not make sense. The Government shut down Bord na Móna at a time when we need it more than ever. Its answer was to shut it down. There have been at least 31 energy price hikes by suppliers this year, meaning bills are skyrocketing by as much as €805 for some customers, leaving the country in the grip of an energy crisis. This is not just affecting householders; there are small shops and businesses that use a lot more energy. They are seeing their costs going through the roof and their income, if anything, is reducing . Electricity prices in Ireland are the highest in the EU, according to EUROSTAT. The Government must recognise the warning from the Irish Road Haulage Association, representatives of which I met with two weeks ago, that record increases in the prices of petrol and diesel are crippling the sector and increasing the price of all consumer goods as a consequence of the increased transportation costs. Everything in this country rolls on wheels; nothing falls out of the sky. When I met representatives of the Irish Road Haulage Association in Killarney two weeks ago, their message to me was very clear. They told me that I should stand up in the Dáil and ask the Government to recognise that the haulage industry is going through a massive crisis. People who have lorries on the road and are delivering goods, the goods that we need every day, are in crisis.

The Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act completely undermines our uncontested need for more gas-fired power and energy generation to ensure continued security of the electricity supply. Now, more than ever, the Shannon liquefied natural gas, LNG, project should be going ahead. What was the Government's answer when it came into office? It was to capitulate and give in to the Green Party. What did the Government do? It said it would not go ahead with Shannon LNG. Everybody knows we need it and it is the right thing to do. The Government chose to satisfy the needs of the Green Party, which is really running this country into the ground. Nobody will ever point his or her finger at us and say that we are climate change deniers, we do not agree with anything and we think it is all a load of nonsense. We are not saying that; what we are saying is that there are sensible, prudent things that the Government should be doing but instead, it is taking actions which are adversely impacting on farmers and householders, the people who have to live, pay their ESB bills, send their children to school and pay their food bills today. At the same time, what are they getting from the Government? They are facing the massive shock wave of implications resulting from the implementation of the carbon budget and what that is going to mean for them. It is actually frightening.

Unless you are living in the Cabinet bubble that seems to be so far removed from reality that you can be oblivious to what is happening in the countryside, you will feel the wrath of what is happening in the countryside. The amazing thing about it is that I do not know what the people are going to do. It is not just the Green Party. Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and the Green Party are blind and asleep. Many Opposition Members are telling the Government that it is not going far enough, fast enough. What does it want to do? Does it want to make it impossible for people to live today? We are all interested in the climate and the future but you have to protect the people in the present and the Government is choosing to ignore that completely. We see what other countries are doing. They are recognising the energy crisis. In Spain, for instance, the Prime Minister there has reduced the VAT and tax take to try to ensure that the people can survive and pay their bills today. I ask the Government to wake up to the needs of the people now.

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