Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Governments throughout Europe are taking emergency steps to shield their citizens from the worsening energy crisis. Even the Green Party coalition in Germany is preparing to reopen coal plants while other governments have moved to cut energy taxes. In Ireland, our Government has remained the outlier, doing either nothing or much too little. Even Frans Timmermans, the second most senior official in the EU, as Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, has now issued a stark warning to EU governments that helping citizens with the record energy and food costs in each member state must take precedence over the climate crisis. It certainly will not in Ireland. That comes first and foremost. Let Paddy and Mary starve on the side of the road or rob them with carbon tax penalties and VAT on fuel but do not help them in any way, shape or form. This warning comes as the European Commission Executive Vice-President stated that the threat of unrest this winter due to the cost-of-living crisis must be taken seriously by governments. Therefore it appears that everyone, even unelected bureaucrats in Brussels, is recommending that governments like the Irish one act as such.

When will the Government wake up and some long-overdue action be taken? The EU Commission is warning that Europe is in danger of highly damaging strong conflict and strife this winter over high energy prices and that member state Governments should make a short-term return to fossil fuels to head off the threat of civil unrest. We, the Rural Independent group, presented a motion to reopen the Barryroe oil field off the Cork coast a few weeks ago and the Government balked at the idea and voted against such a proposal on the basis that it conflicted with the Green Party's climate change framework.

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