Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach comes from a family with a tradition of boxing. I believe he has a couple of years on me but, like myself, he will remember the greats of the 1970s and how they would manoeuvre their opponents onto the ropes and punish them with a seemingly never-ending barrage of body blows. Ordinary people are being punished with a seemingly never-ending barrage of financial body blows in the form of these price hikes from the energy companies. They suffer blow after blow after blow. This morning, there were two more. SSE Airtricity hiked its gas and electricity prices by 9% while Pinergy hiked its by 19%. These are the 34th and 35th energy price hikes, the 34th and 35th financial body blows from energy companies, in this year alone. For the ordinary householder, this is a hit of approximately €700 to €800 for the year. For many, it is over €1,000. For some, these price hikes represent a grave danger. Every winter, large numbers of our people die from the cold. Some years, it is 1,000 people. Sometimes, it is 1,500. It is not unknown for 2,000 people to die in this way. The excess winter death rate for this country is consistently one of the highest in all of Europe, higher even than the rate in many colder countries such as Norway. Those who die are far more likely to be old and to be poor. They do not really die of the cold but of fuel poverty and an inability to afford to heat their homes in Ireland in the 21st century.

What is the Taoiseach going to do about this? Is he going to stand idly by and watch the likes of the ESB make profits of €363 million in the first six months of this year alone while households struggle to make ends meet and old people die? To date, the Taoiseach has done very little. He has increased the fuel allowance by a miserable €5 and promised to consider reducing the VAT rate on gas and electricity from 13.5% to 12%, which would be a miserable cut. How long are his deliberations going to take? Today is the first day of December. The coldest months are on us now. The Taoiseach needs to act quickly. What is he going to do and when will he get around to doing it?

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