Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

All of us speak on the motion this evening in the context of what the Minister has rightly described as unprecedented times. In effect, we have a three-pronged crisis - a cost-of-living crisis, an energy crisis and a chronic housing and homelessness crisis. This is framed by the overarching spectre of the climate emergency. It is indeed an unprecedented time. On this side of the House, as well as on the Government benches, we are all conscious that if these crises are not urgently addressed by the Government we are going to see severe hardship visited upon families, households and businesses over the coming bleak winter. We are going to see the poorest households forced to take impossible decisions between heating or eating. We are going to see thousands of working families driven into poverty and debt and we are going to see yet another generation of young adults unable to find or fund secure accommodation and be forced into emigration.

Already, many of us are hearing harrowing stories from people. In my constituency - Dublin Bay South, which is also that of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan - I hear of people faced with eviction and notices to quit, who are devastated at the prospect of trying to find suitable or affordable accommodation anywhere local. We are told by charities about couriers, people who are working and who deliver food to others, but who cannot afford to buy food for themselves. They are turning up for free dinners handed out by the charities. That is simply not acceptable. We hear from small business owners, who are faced with soaring energy bills that are now reaching the level of an additional rent or leasehold. These are extortionate costs that households and businesses are facing, and we need to see concerted and urgent action from the Government on it. That is why we in the Labour Party very much welcome the opportunity tonight to debate the upcoming budget and the package of measures necessary to address this hardship.

I mentioned that yet another generation of young adults is forced to emigrate. I am from a generation that grew up in the 1980s when emigration and unemployment were high. We were facing a 20% unemployment rate and, like now, we were seeing families at their wits end with unaffordable prices for food and fuel. Some things are very different from the 1980s. Now we have what could be described as a paradox of plenty where we have got a successful macro economy.

We have Exchequer figures showing a surplus of €6.3 billion for the first eight months of this year alone. We do not have the sort of unemployment figures that we had in the 1980s and that is obviously extremely positive. All the more reason, then, to address the spiralling cost of living because the resources are there. We in the Labour Party have called on the Government to take ambitious, radical and creative measures, to adopt State-led measures of the sort and scale that we saw during the Covid pandemic in order to tackle the hardship that will be faced by so many families, households and businesses but what we are hearing from Government is a lack of urgency. It appears that there is no reassurance forthcoming from Government. We are told to wait and see what the forthcoming budget will contain. People are really fearful now about what is coming down the tracks and yet it appears that in Government Buildings the blinds are down, the shutters are up and obviously the heating is off as we all seek to cut costs on energy.

I am meeting people who tell me that six months or a year ago the incomes they had were sufficient to meet their costs. I am talking about two-income households, about people in what would be considered good jobs who are no longer able to meet costs like the €1,200 monthly that people are having to pay for childcare and early years education. That is what parents are paying in Dublin Bay South now. People are having to think twice about bringing a child over six years of age to the doctor because each doctor's visit is costly. We know that households are now facing the prospect of energy bills of up to €6,000 per annum next year. These are the sorts of burdens and hardships that have to be addressed. We really need to see very strong and urgent action from the Government.

On the energy crisis, we in the Labour Party have called for a three-pronged approach. We want to see the immediate introduction of a windfall tax on excessive profits in energy companies. I raised this earlier today with the Taoiseach. I very much welcome, as do my Labour Party colleagues, the moves at EU level that the Minister spoke about to devise such a tax. We have also called for a maximum price cap on energy bills and the extension of eligibility for the fuel allowance for low and middle income households. It would cost €15 million to bring 16,000 new households within the eligibility criteria for fuel allowance. That in itself would be a significant way of alleviating hardship for those families. On the windfall tax issue, the Minister mentioned very briefly in his opening remarks the Corrib gas field, which I raised earlier today. The Taoiseach mentioned that we import 75% of our gas but there is a glaring elephant in the room here. The Corrib gas field supplies about one quarter of our gas needs. It is local supply, on this island. Revenues from Corrib increased almost fourfold last year and the company is enjoying another year of bumper profits yet nothing has happened to increase the cost of production or supply of Corrib gas. There is no international competition to boost the price of Corrib gas and yet the price has increased dramatically. That is why I raised with the Taoiseach earlier and raise again now with the Minister the proposal that we look at what powers are available to Government to ensure that the cost of indigenously produced gas can be reduced in order to go some way to meeting the cost of this energy crisis. Clearly this is not a panacea but is just one measure that could be considered. We are proposing that Government would look at existing legislation, including the Fuels (Control of Supplies) Acts 1971 and 1982, which were introduced by previous Fianna Fáil Governments to equip the State with the power to regulate and control the supply and distribution of fuel including gas and invoked previously during the oil shortages in the 1970s. When one looks at that legislation, one sees that there are clear powers there that could be invoked on a temporary basis for the duration of this emergency to ensure that all Irish-produced gas could be sold to the State on a cost-plus basis, in substitution for the current distorted international prices which are not relevant to the market for Corrib gas. We all acknowledge that the market at EU level needs radical change in any case. Indeed, the EU and Ms Ursula von der Leyen have acknowledged that. Just looking at our own supply, though, there is a measure available to Government now because the State could then sell Corrib gas into the Irish market at a reasonable cost-plus price. We have done some creative thinking on this and I urge the Minister to consider this measure.

Clearly there are also many other measures that need to be introduced to alleviate the pressure on households and to ensure that families and individuals can get through the winter ahead. We need to see vastly enhanced environmental initiatives incentivising a rapid switch, nationwide, to renewables. I know the Minister has already brought forward some measures on that but there are some things that could be real win-wins like increasing the grant for solar panels, for example. We should be really encouraging more and more households to invest in and switch to solar power because that will have a double-positive effect of both reducing emissions and tackling household energy bills.

We have also argued in the face of this chronic cost-of-living crisis that Ireland needs a pay rise and that as a minimum we should see an increase in the minimum wage so it becomes a living wage. That is something that the trade unions have called for and that is clearly necessary. We also need to support small businesses facing the massive hikes we have all heard about in energy bills and basic costs. My colleague Deputy Nash has proposed the introduction of a temporary wage support scheme modelled on the pandemic-era schemes to provide much-needed relief to small and medium enterprises who are struggling with vastly-increased bills.

Of course, in the face of a chronic lack of housing, we need to see massive State investment in a building programme providing public homes on public land and affordable homes for all. We are also asking the Government again to adopt the Labour Party's legislation providing greater protections to renters around security of tenure and against rent hikes, including a freeze on rents for three years. We have also called for a number of emergency measures to address the unprecedented cost-of-living crisis, including a cap on childcare costs to €200 per month because that would bring us into line with the sorts of costs faced by parents in other countries for childcare and early years education. That is the sort of immediate measure that could be brought in and we received some interesting costings from the Exchequer on that. At €270 million a year, it is not an excessive cost when one looks at the difference that investment would make to so many households. We have called for the introduction of a climate ticket, giving people unlimited access to public transport around Ireland for €9 per month. This is the sort of innovative measure we saw introduced in Germany on a pilot basis this year which proved to be so successful. Our costing on that is around €150 million to bring that in for the three months to the end of this year. It would make a dramatic difference to households who are currently facing huge transport costs, would really incentivise a switch to public transport and help us to tackle our climate emissions. We have also called, as we have done for many years, for the immediate extension of free GP care to all children under 18 which can be done for a reasonable sum.

I am conscious that we will have other opportunities to debate the budget. We in the Labour Party will be putting forward a fully costed, alternative budget but the real message tonight is that we must see urgent measures from Government. We are in a situation where we have an Exchequer surplus and we need to see that money invested to help alleviate the hardship that so many families and households face and to address the real and chronic fears that we are hearing about all across the country.

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