Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There seems to be a trend here. It was the same when the Government was going to roll out free antigen tests but then Lidl and so on sorted it out. It is likely that the same thing will happen here. The Government will take so long to come up with a scheme that the weather will have got better. We will be into the spring or the summer and the Government will say that help is no longer needed. We have been raising this issue with the Government since October. There have been 35 energy price increases. It was 4°C yesterday. I am not sure what the temperature outside is at the minute. People are suffering as a result of these energy price increases. Bonkers.ietells us that they amount to €1,300 per year. The Tánaiste has not mentioned anything about offsetting the rapid rise in oil prices. Most people in rural Ireland use oil rather than electricity or gas to heat their homes. Oil heating has seen the sharpest increase, 71% in a year.

There are solutions. We already have a model through the electricity discount scheme. We can expand that to other operators. When is the Government going to bring forward a scheme? I am conscious that next week is the Dáil's last sitting week for the year. While Government is doing basically nothing on this issue, bills are coming in and households are under additional pressure and wondering how to make ends meet.

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