Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Sherlock. I welcome this motion and the opportunity to speak on it. I am always conscious when speaking on these issues of the suffering of the people of Ukraine. That is the issue of paramount importance. That is the paramount issue we face today globally. We have a sense of proportion. None of the problems we debate here, important as they are, come close to the suffering of the people of Ukraine. Rising fuel and energy costs were already having a very real impact on the cost of living for those on fixed, low and middle incomes pre war. The illegal war waged in Ukraine has only exacerbated those rising energy and fuel costs.

The initial response from the Government to these rising costs was meek and anaemic. I have said that time and again. We warned in our response to last October's budget that social welfare increases would not keep pace with the rising price of fuel, energy and the basics needed to keep the fridge stocked. Laterally, the €200 gimmick for everyone, regardless of income, was never going to cut it. It certainly will not pass muster now. A cost of living crisis has every chance of becoming a cost of living catastrophe. I say that with some sensitivity and a sense of proportion.

Yesterday, I spoke to a pensioner couple in Louth who missed the fuel allowance threshold by €9.30. One of them has a serious medical condition. Their response is to only put the heating on for a maximum of four hours a day. That is what they are reduced to. These are people who have worked all their lives. Why can the fuel allowance not be extended to another 150,000 households that are borderline, as I recommended as far back as October's budget? That is a simple measure that would alleviate, address and counter fuel poverty.

The Exchequer has made windfall gains on VAT as companies like Bord Gáis shamelessly protect their profits with massive price hikes. It should be a source of embarrassment for the Taoiseach that he has only in recent days sought a derogation from the European Commission to see if VAT can be cut on energy bills. We have been calling for this for months and it is only being explored now. Yesterday, a local drugs service came to me with its Electric Ireland bill. It is €2,166 since January, which is up from €1,742 for its last bill. It already runs that crucial service on fresh air. Given the tight margins within which the community and voluntary sector operates, can we expect line Departments to help these services meet their costs? I think we know what the answer is.

The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, will remember Carlinn Hall, Dundalk. When he was last in office, he welcomed this residential development. It is a 200-unit development with district communal heating. It was meant to be fuelled by biogas. It was billed as an estate of the future and the system is now powered by gas. The further rub is that the residents are being charged commercial rates by an intermediary called Frontline Energy, which is acting for Energia. Costs are escalating massively. Surely these people should be paying a residential rate and not a commercial one. The Minister washed his hands of this issue in a response to a recent parliamentary question from me. I have asked a regulator to make a determination on this. Surely these people should be paying residential bills and not bills at commercial rates. I mention this situation because this is one of the real-world problems that my constituents and others across the country are experiencing. I accept that it is not always possible for the Government to mitigate against all the effects this dreadful war will have on living standards in Ireland. I get that. All we are asking the Government to do is use the tools available to it to help people manage throughout this crisis. Unfortunately, many of those tools remain locked in the shed. That is a fact. Why, for example, did the Government not consider, and why is it not considering, activating maximum price orders for fuel at the pumps? Why is it not doing that in the short term? It is beyond me. This is provided for in the Consumer Protection Act 2007, yet that provision remains idle. It was for times like this that that provision was designed.

In 2010, under pressure from Intel, Lufthansa Technik and other multinationals, the then Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, asked the energy regulator to rebalance electricity tariffs in favour of businesses that were large consumers of electricity. The Minister of State will remember this as he was a Government Deputy at the time. That was done at the expense of householders. In August 2010, the Sunday Independentsaid that the move added an additional 3% to the electricity bills of domestic users across Ireland. That was at a time when there were an average of about 900 disconnections every month and the country was heading towards unemployment levels of 500,000. At this time of crisis, will the Minister of State now reverse that decision, or appeal to his Government colleagues to reverse it, and rebalance the tariff in favour of hard-pressed householders? That action alone would make a very real difference for households across this country, which are struggling to make ends meet and will continue to struggle over the next few months in this extremely insecure and uncertain time.

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