Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

We all know the urgency of retrofitting homes that are badly insulated to protect the climate and lift the financial burden being imposed on families by rising energy costs. As usual with Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and, most sadly, the Green Party, the way the scheme is designed means it is, once again, a scheme where the suffering of the poor will subsidise improvements in the lifestyles of the rich. That is what is going to happen.

What I mean by that? The financing for all of this is dependent on regressive taxes being imposed on people who are absolutely crucified at the moment by rising energy costs. In 2020, we collected €494 million. I understand an additional €148 million, or in that realm, was collected as a result of the increase in 2021. As Deputy Bríd Smith found out this week, we raised €481 million in VAT on energy last year. Over €1 billion in regressive forms of tax that disproportionately hit the least well-off have been raised, and next year the Government will give us €267 million, a fraction of which is for retrofitting. However, the people who will be most able to access it are rich and can afford to make up the gap between the maximum amount for retrofitting, which is €25,000, and the actual cost of a deep retrofit, which is, in reality, €50,000 or more in many cases.

This is the reverse of Robin Hood. It is the working people subsidising a grand scheme that will mostly benefit the better off and which they will not be able to access. The idea that the just transition to a better climate future is about impoverishing even more the poor and least well-off is, frankly, sickening. That is what is going on. If anything is going to turn people away from the climate agenda, it is that sort of policy that will do it.

Given that we are talking about energy, I cannot help but comment on the mantra being used by the Government to justify the increase in energy costs that is happening, namely that it is all to do with the international market and we have no control over it. The Government has control over carbon tax, VAT and PSO levies, which is why our energy costs are 15% to 20% higher than the rest of Europe. That is the fault of the Government.

Something else that has not been injected into the debate is the fact that most of our gas comes not from international sources but from a private company in Corrib because the State gave it away. Most of our electricity, up to 85% on many days, comes from wind produced on land in the country. All of the prices are charged at international market rates, which is an important reminder of something we have often said. Even if we develop loads of renewable energy privately and for profit, it will not make a damn bit of difference to ordinary people in terms of the cost of energy they are being crucified with. That will continue unless the sector is under public control.

Obviously, we need to retrofit people's homes with funds raised, not by crucifying the least well-off and subsidising the well-off, but by putting that investment into retrofitting social housing and the homes of tenants and the least well-off and actually providing grants and supports which are genuinely affordable. That could easily be done by taxing some of the profits made by energy companies in this country.

See this speech in context