Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There were price rises again yesterday and we can expect the future to look the same. The Minister knows better than most that the price of a therm of gas was approximately 40 cent for a long time but there is a new normal upon us now, and estimations are that it will level off somewhere in the region of €2.50. There is a huge difference between 40 cent and €2.50. While there are mitigations, for the foreseeable future we are going to live in a reality where the price of gas is at €2.50 a therm or higher. That is the new reality and it is going to force people into poverty. We need a response from the Government and it needs to be aligned with these increases in costs. We need to protect people. The Government needs to go beyond the measures that it has introduced or else we will see more and more people driven into poverty. We heard from some of them yesterday on “Morning Ireland”, which was a perfect and depressing example of it.

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