Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this motion and I urge Sinn Féin to accept our amendment. It is important that we get our heads around what has just been argued.

First, it is clear that the Government's response is half-hearted and inadequate in the context off the crisis and the job we need to do to relieve the pressure on many of our citizens. Some €200 and a 20% cut in public transport fares can only be seen in the context of the current situation as a start, not the end. The idea that any further support of intervention can wait until the budget is insane and tells us just how out of touch the Government is and how submerged it is in its own PR spin.

Second, while presented as some freak of nature, as has been said, or a result of an external disaster, such as the war in Ukraine, it is clear that a significant portion of the rising costs of fuel, energy, electricity, etc., is not the fault of the workings of the market; it is the fault of the market itself. It is far from some quirk caused by external factors. The hikes faced by ordinary people stem from deregulation, privatisation and the creation of markets in key areas, such as electricity generation and supply. I remind the Minister that in this country, we went from having one of the cheapest and most efficient sources of electricity generation in Europe, under the ESB before it was deregulated, to having the present disjointed, dysfunctional system with several generators and multiple suppliers and one of Europe's most expensive electricity supply prices to our citizens. This deregulation proliferation of competing firms has hindered, not helped, the provision of cheap, safe, efficient power supplies. For ordinary people, it has been a suffering to ensure that profit, and often hyper-profit, remains the order of the day. Never waste a good crisis or let anything get in the way of profit.

Third, I am struck by the Government's narrative on this crisis. It has echoes of other crises, such as in climate and health. Unless we intervene in the market, how the hell are we going to solve the greatest crisis facing us, namely, that relating to the climate?

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