Verona Murphy (Wexford, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I learned from a constituent in the past couple of days that it is the practice of the ESB to apply a low usage charge at a fixed rate of €38.28 for a 66-day period. The low usage charge applies when usage drops below 125 kWh. It is the practice of a State-owned body to penalise consumers for reducing their electricity consumption. The Minister currently encourages consumers to reduce the time they spend in the shower and to change the times they use their washing machines and dishwashers, with other such measures to reduce their ESB bills, in the full knowledge that this is a complete fallacy, as those low-income earners and pressed middle class people will be the subject of a low usage charge if they take his advice.

It is patently clear that he is completely out of touch with reality and the challenges facing those on middle incomes in Ireland. Will he explain why Electric Ireland is allowed to apply higher standing charges to those customers who use low volumes of electricity? Surely any sensible energy or climate policy should reward those who use less energy rather than punishing them? Last year, I was one of only ten Deputies to vote against the climate action legislation. My decision is now vindicated, especially when I see the consequences for the people of rural Ireland. My opposition to the Bill was not as a climate change denier but as a realist. My opposition is because I know the solutions being proposed to deal with climate change are contradictory and ineffective, and will tax the poorest in society.

This practice of charging higher fees for people who use less electricity is another example in a long list of contradictions when it comes to the Government's approach to climate change. Different members of Government seem to be attributing the blame for the cost-of-living crisis to the invasion of Ukraine. The reality is that the biggest cause of the crisis has been the implementation of poorly thought-out energy policies that have resulted in rising costs, coupled with the consequences of Brexit. These policies include shutting down energy production in Ireland and instead importing peat from eastern Europe, banning gas exploration and instead buying Russian gas abroad, and imposing carbon taxes on fuel and home heating oil and then applying VAT on the tax. These are just some examples of how Government behaviour has contributed to the current problems.

The climate action Bill is about carbon credits, another fallacious policy. It basically states that the Government does not care how much CO2 is emitted, as long as it is outsourced to some other country.

Government policy penalises our own farmers with taxes, regulations and charges, while indirectly encouraging imported products from places such as Brazil, where thousands of acres of rainforests have been removed to create room to meet their farming needs. These have been produced in an environmentally unfriendly way and then transported here using the very fuel that the Government is trying to encourage us not to use. In full view of the obvious headwinds that face our small island economy, the Government is hell bent on proceeding with an increase in carbon tax. It appears that the Government does not realise that raising prices will make inflation worse. It is willing to ignore the facts that this would penalise the most marginalised in society. It is prepared to ignore the obvious, disastrous consequences for our economy in terms of unemployment and wage demands.

The people need initiatives that will deal with inflation, not initiatives that will compound inflation. All of this is at a time when our economy faces serious challenges as a result of the war and of the energy crisis. Let me just highlight again who these carbon taxes affect the most. They affect the people on lower and middle incomes. These are the people who spend the highest percentage of their income on essentials, such as heating and food. Low-income earners are the least able to afford to retrofit houses, or to buy a new electric vehicle. Retrofitting will benefit those who are on higher incomes, not the squeezed middle. People in rural areas of Ireland do not have the facility of public transport to avail of to replace their car journey or to go to work to help to reduce their carbon footprint. They mostly have no choice but to use their car which, today, they can no longer afford.

Carbon taxes are anti-poor, anti-rural and anti-logic and should not be implemented without first having an alternative that the consumer can avail of. If the carbon tax increase goes ahead in May, it would be another clear public demonstration that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are willing to ignore the struggling people and, instead, capitulate once again to the Green Party’s agenda in order to ensure that the Government does not fall. It is not too late for the Government to do the right thing. I say it again: the Government must remove its 55% tax take from all fuel until the war is over and until risks have abated. It will save jobs, it will save the economy and it will maintain the standard of living.

When I put this proposal to the House two months ago, some in the Government condemned it as the madness from a mad cow. It appears some economists are now catching the same mad cow disease and are agreeing with that proposal. Today, David McWilliams noted a similar view, as did others on this side of the House. Thankfully, they are now beginning to see these policies being of no benefit to the people. Events are beginning to resemble 2008 more and more by the day. The application of carbon taxes is Cromwellian and will tax the majority in society into penury. The people will not stand for it and neither will I.

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