Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

There is no threat to our gas supplies from Britain. Reliance on Britain would only be replaced by reliance on North American fracked gas or LNG from Qatar or another similar dictatorship. I am in favour of eliminating our reliance on British and North Sea gas. The quicker we do it the better but we should not replace it with reliance on a different source of oil or gas. The war in Ukraine is being used by global fossil fuel interests to row back on climate action and to further develop new streams of oil and gas across the planet. The devastation of this will outlive the devastation of the war and will cost even more suffering.

I want to look at what would address the energy price crisis and what we need to do to help ordinary people. This Saturday I will join tens of thousands of others from trade unions, senior citizens, retired workers, students, dozens of homeless groups, groups representing lone parents and NGOs from throughout Ireland. We will march from Parnell Square at 2.30 p.m. to demand meaningful action including price controls, rent controls, increases for workers to match inflation and increases in social protection to match inflation. Nobody should be cut off this winter for being unable to pay their bills. As we have repeatedly said, there should be no further connections to data centres in this State. They are way over the top in their usage of energy. Meaningful action would mean moving away from the market and the deregulation and liberalisation of energy . That happened in the 1980s, 1990s and early 2000s. Meaningful action would mean reversing the decades of that dogma which placed the profits of a few above the interests of many. I hope the Deputies behind the motion will join us and demand real action on the crisis we really do face.

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