Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to speak on the energy crisis. There are three specific crises facing us in this country as regards energy. The first is the most pressing for many households, namely, the rising cost of energy bills. The average household in Ireland is facing significantly increased costs. All 14 of Ireland's energy suppliers have increased prices at least once this year. In September, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities warned that people will face higher charges due to record demand and reduced supply. Many people, households and families have real concerns that they will face fuel poverty over the coming winter. That is a real and pressing concern for all of us. We need to hear more from the Government as to how that will be tackled.

Second, there is a potential crisis building with regard to the security and certainty of our energy supply. My colleague, Deputy Kelly, raised this with the Taoiseach yesterday. He asked whether it can be guaranteed that the lights will stay on. He also noted that the response to a parliamentary question tabled by Deputy Sherlock in recent weeks pointed out that there have been seven amber systems alerts in the past 12 months, the most recent having been on 28 October. All of us are concerned about guaranteeing the security of our energy supply. That is very much linked to the rise in prices and the great burden this is placing on households.

Of course, there is also a third crisis, which is a global crisis. I refer to the crisis currently being addressed at the Conference of the Parties, COP26, which is discussing how to decarbonise our energy and how to move to reduce our emissions to ensure we do not see a devastating rise in global temperatures over the next decade and beyond. We also need to focus policies on this area. All of us in the Opposition accept that these are challenging crises for the Government to address. There is no doubt about that. It is very difficult to address the challenge of enormous increases in prices for households and the burden that is placing on hard-pressed families and individuals alongside difficulties with supply and the urgent need to decarbonise. However, we need to see more from Government. We need to see more firm and concrete commitments to address these three crises.

Half of our electricity is powered by gas and demand for that has increased as most countries have exited lockdown. That has led to the shortages in supply. Urgent increased investment in other forms of energy generation, particularly in renewables and microgeneration, along with urgent investment in retrofitting will help us to tackle the crises in cost and supply. We have discussed before how we have no shortage of potential energy sources, including solar and wind generation. There is an abundance of wind potential in particular in Ireland. However, to date, we have not put in place the investment to develop infrastructure for offshore wind generation. We need to do so urgently in order to meet the ambitious targets we have set for this decade, up to 2030.

I heard the radio interview with the chief executive of EirGrid, Mark Foley, this morning. He spoke about the challenges in meeting these targets. EirGrid has launched a very ambitious blueprint today, Shaping Our Electricity Future, but there are real questions about how that blueprint can be delivered upon, particularly in light of last week's news of Equinor's withdrawal from Ireland and slowdowns in many areas, not least in transport with the announcement of the greater Dublin area transport plan being delayed.

We need to see more firm commitments on green hydrogen and the roll-out of new technologies. Last week, I asked the Minister of State to outline how the Government intends to make the production of green hydrogen more cost-effective. We again need greater clarity on that. We also need an update on when the new planning regulations on solar generation will be submitted. We all get correspondence from schools, community centres, GAA clubs, football clubs and other sports clubs in our constituencies about how they can contribute to meeting targets by investing in solar generation. There is tremendous goodwill in the community but these groups have so far been stymied and obstructed in installing solar panels and in feeding back into the grid. Microgeneration is of great importance in dealing with shortfalls in energy supply. We also need greater clarity from the Government on the issue of data centres. We know how much of a burden they place on energy supply and we need to hear more about how that is going to be addressed in the future. We have had that debate here.

We also need more firm commitments from the Government with regard to a just transition and how allowances are to be made for those on whom the measures necessary to tackle climate change will have the most impact. We need to ensure that households that are struggling to pay rising fuel and energy bills are supported in doing so. My party believes in the need to sustain a carbon tax. It is one of a suite of measures that is required to help us meet the challenge of this global climate emergency. However, we also believe that Government needs to do more to address the cost that imposes on households. We need better allowances in respect of the fuel allowance and a new carbon tax credit. In our alternative budget, Labour put forward a proposal for an alternative carbon tax credit worth €200 a week for households with incomes of less than €50,000 and whose homes have a building energy rating, BER, lower than B2. That sort of initiative would have been a real signal that Government understands that the transition to a low-carbon or decarbonised economy will have an impact on people and that this impact must be addressed.

There are ways to address this. There are ways that a Government that is green but which also recognises real burdens on struggling households can address these crises in energy costs and energy supply, while at the same time moving forward to decarbonise in all of our interests and in the interests of our global society. As COP26 enters its final days, we all hope and anticipate that we will see a clear pathway given at international level through the memorandum that is being prepared.

We also need clarity on the pathway in this country. We need to see how the climate action plan that was launched last week will deliver in practice on the ground and how the impact it is likely to have on individuals who are struggling with fuel costs will be addressed through other Government measures, ensuring a just transition.

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