Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I also thank the Regional Group for bringing the motion forward. The response of the Government to the crisis being inflicted on families and businesses across the country has been dreadful. Earlier this year, the Government was pushed to introduce measures to assist families and businesses but as the crisis increased, the Government refused to have an emergency budget, opting instead to take the summer off from making any decisions. This was a dereliction of duty. Families of people who have to use oxygen concentrators, for example, or dialysis machines, were left to bear the brunt all summer. Businesses and farms had to keep operating, and we have all heard the staggering bills they are faced with.

In June, the additional needs payment was announced, but 95% of current applications are taking five to eight weeks to be finalised.

That is no emergency response.

In October of last year the Government opposed proposals at EU level to decouple electricity prices from the gas market. Now we see a dramatic U-turn from the Government on the issue of decoupling gas from electricity prices. That is the problem with this Government: it has no vision and wastes time.

A study by the Financial Timesfound that Ireland is second-last among European governments in acting on the energy crisis. Yet the Government dismisses Sinn Féin calls to cap electricity prices at €1,000, inclusive of VAT and standing charges. Instead, people must wait up to two months for the emergency assistance the Government talks about.

We in Sinn Féin have also raised with the Government for months the need for a windfall tax on excess profits made by electricity suppliers. It is immoral to profit off the back of a war in Ukraine and the misery of struggling households.

That struggle is everywhere. Only today I received an email from a Tipperary constituent who had received a letter from a school asking that pupils bring in their own small towels because blue tissue has now become so expensive for the school. That is where we are: struggling schools looking for support from struggling parents. It is just not right.

This motion mentions the use of fixed-price contracts to increase the supply of biomass for energy from our agriculture and forestry sectors. The Government, however, is making it difficult when trees, dead due to ash dieback, are left to rot in the ground because of licensing delays.

The motion also calls for an external review of all CRU and EirGrid actions which led to increases in standing charges. Sinn Féin has called on the regulator to outline what it is doing to monitor standing charge increases by some companies.

When it comes to the threat to electricity supply, the figures speak for themselves. In 2017 the number of amber electricity alerts was one. In 2020 the number increased to three. This year, up to August, it was eight. It is not as though the Government has not had any warning of this. It just lacks the vision to deal with it.

The Government has mismanaged this crisis. That is why we are discussing this motion and why, yesterday, Sinn Féin outlined a package of measures to act in the interest of people in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis.

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