Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I cannot think of the last time that, by the time the Government came forward on Second Stage with a proposal, it had basically publicly acknowledged it was not good enough and would not do anything. That is the state we are in now, given the comments that have been reported from yesterday's parliamentary party meetings.

On the one hand, it speaks to the scale of the crisis facing ordinary people, in terms of the rising cost of living, of which energy prices are a key driving component, and the pressure that the Government feels. On the other hand, it speaks to the inadequacy of the proposals it has to deal with that.

We can go back to the motion we put forward on the energy crisis four or five months ago, where the response of the Government was an amendment where the punchline said the market will solve all the problems and that we should rely on the free market. The free market means energy prices continue to go through the roof. The big energy companies are taking advantage of the situation to increase prices again and again and continue to make massive profits. All the Government has to offer people on the receiving end of this price gauging is €113. It is a drop on a hot stove, will be wiped out by the price increases immediately and made to appear minuscule.

The over-reliance of this Government and previous Governments on fossil fuels to power the economy has left Ireland at the mercy of global supply chain bottlenecks, as industries and countries try to boom back after the Covid pandemic lockdown and shifting global weather pattern lead to greater energy use. Price increases are compounded by the Government's strategy of making ordinary householders foot the bill for gas and electricity infrastructure instead of ensuring its paid for in a fairer and more equitable way.

It is worth comparing the price households in this country pay for gas to elsewhere in the EU. In the second half of 2019, they paid 12% above the EU average. Electricity prices were 11% above the EU average in 2019. In 2021 they were 18% above the EU average. What is the consequence of high energy prices?

It hits those who are already struggling to pay the rent and buy groceries and who must make the choice between heating and eating.

Looking at the figures for deaths from cold-related diseases or excess winter deaths as a consequence of the cold and people not being able to heat themselves properly, they are astounding. There are 2,800 people who die this way per year, and we can put that in the context of Covid-19. We were in favour of taking the best possible approach to minimise the impact of Covid-19 and deaths arising from it. Approximately 2,300 excess deaths were recorded during the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic between March 2020 and February 2021, so the number of excess winter deaths is more than the number of excess deaths from Covid-19.

Contrary to what Deputy Cowen suggested earlier, the roots of the Irish aspects of this problem lie precisely in the direction of the privatisation and deregulation that has been going on. The answer is to move in the opposite direction, as opposed to what Deputy Cowen suggests. From the 1990s onwards, the EU sought to break up state-run energy companies across Europe, such as the ESB and Bord Gáis. In 1996 and 1998, the EU introduced the first electricity and gas directives, which forced states to open their energy systems and sell power plants and infrastructure to private capitalists. The Irish Government did not then seek derogations from these directives, despite the fact the small size of the Irish market would exacerbate the worst effects of privatisation. In 1999, Fianna Fáil introduced the Electricity Regulation Act 1999, opening the market to competition, and two years later it removed the not-for-profit mandate of the ESB. Formerly public companies that were run on a not-for-profit basis were forced into a market, requiring them to behave instead like private capitalists seeking higher rates of profits.

The consequence of this has been predictably disastrous. Prices, rates of energy poverty, disconnections and the number of cold-related deaths all rose dramatically. Privatisation or "unbundling" also brought inordinate costs. Each private company involved expects a rate of profit of approximately 8% on its investment so when the price of inputs increase, it passes on those increases to maintain its rate of profit. Energy supplier companies are charged for moving energy throughout the system and such charges are passed to ordinary energy users, making up a third of the household Bill. These are special transmission use of system charges paid by suppliers to EirGrid and Gas Networks Ireland for using their transmission network and distribution use of system of tariffs paid to ESB Networks and Gas Networks Ireland to distribute energy. These charges are the third highest in the EU and, as I said, are a third of a user's bill.

Each company seeks to maximise its profit in a specific field and does not adopt an holistic approach to energy consumption. A reduction in energy usage runs counter to these companies' economic interest, and this means those interests are the opposite of the interests of society at large. The first renewable energy, in a sense, is energy efficiency or reducing the amount of energy we are using. This would get us off the track of a huge expansion in the use of data centres, although unfortunately the Government still seems to be committed to this. We should encourage users to reduce energy usage but such measures are not being adopted. Instead, the focus is on forcing households to remain locked into high energy use and prices.

Irish homes are consuming 7% more energy than the EU average due to years of hands-off housing policy, low quality standards and a painfully slow retrofitting programme. The alternative, as outlined by Deputy Boyd Barrett, is immediate price control. The Government has the power to do this but refuses to do it. Price controls could be imposed tomorrow at the stroke of two ministerial pens; they would indicate the maximum unit price for gas, electricity or oil. A second element of this is renationalisation of the energy sector, using it as a lever for a rapid transition to renewable energy. A third element is massive State investment in retrofitting. The State should borrow the required money at low cost and do this retrofitting for households at zero cost. Over time, the benefit would accrue back to the State and household. It would be an absolute win for everybody in society and our environment.

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