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

I speak for the Labour Party as we face a triple crisis with the cost-of-living crisis, an energy security crisis and a housing crisis. Undoubtedly, the cost-of-living and energy crises have been exacerbated by Russia's brutal war on Ukraine, and we see just this week even more evidence of the brutality and horror of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. There is also no doubt, however, but that the Government has been failing to build up the necessary infrastructure to ensure the supports to get us through a cost-of-living and energy crisis as we face into a bleak winter. There is also no doubt but that the Government has been insufficiently cognisant of the existential climate emergency we also face as we seek to deal with and to address the hardship so many families and households face through rising costs, spiralling food and energy prices and unaffordable rents and mortgages. I hear every day in my constituency from families and individuals who are struggling to make ends meet and whose incomes, until even six to eight months or a year ago, were enough to meet the costs they were facing but are no longer enough to meet those spiralling costs. In Ireland we have a surplus budget figure of €6.3 billion for the eight months of this year and nearly full employment, a paradox of plenty because we see the social contract broken. We see delivery riders unable to afford to eat and having to rely on charitable institutions to get hot meals. That is really unacceptable in Ireland in 2022. The hardship is intolerable.

It is in that context we debate this motion on energy security. It is true that the Government is failing citizens who are looking for certainty and who want to know what their bills will be like in one month, two months and three months as we face into the winter. That is what is currently lacking. The situation is at breaking point for so many households, who are now told that their energy bills may reach an average of up to €6,000 next year, a threefold increase on heating and electricity, unsustainable for so many. With this terrible cost-of-living crisis, households and communities undoubtedly need urgent measures in next week's budget to give immediate relief. I think some of that is acknowledged in the motion.

However, my common ground with the drafters of the motion ends there, unfortunately, because the motion as proposed by the Rural Independent Group fails to engage sufficiently with the climate emergency. It fails to acknowledge the existential crisis we face. We should not approach any measure seeking to tackle cost-of-living and energy crises without having serious regard to how best we can meet our vital climate emissions reduction targets. It can be a win-win. We can seek to reduce emissions through clever and radical government policy while giving relief to hard-pressed households, but that is absent from the original motion. The global climate and biodiversity crises are existential, so the notion of abandoning carbon budgets is ludicrous. To quote Extinction Rebellion, we must tell the truth about climate and climate change. We are seeing its impacts everywhere - in Pakistan with floods and in Europe with droughts. We have delayed for far too long, and the really bleak prospect of blackouts and freezing homes in Ireland this winter should refocus our minds and strengthen our commitment to insulate communities from the worst effects of climate change.

Many of the technologies and solutions we need exist. From agriculture to transport, we know it can be done. Yesterday, I was delighted to visit the ploughing championships in County Laois and to meet there with members of the farming and food production communities, who tell me they want support to give effect to ambitious climate targets. They want to see farming and food production in Ireland rendered sustainable not only for them and their children but for all our communities as we face into a climate emergency. It was wonderful to see the engagement with our Labour Party stall at the ploughing championships and to hear from so many people involved in agritech about exciting new initiatives and entrepreneurship. From my constituency, in Ranelagh, Concept Dairy has developed a new app for dairy farmers. There are really ambitious and exciting innovations there, supported by Enterprise Ireland and others. It was very exciting to see this sort of work being done.

We know we can do this. We can meet our climate targets and make Ireland the renewable superpower we can be, but for that we need a new economic model which generates wealth and prosperity for all but which also supports emissions reductions and breaks the hold of the fossil fuel oligarchs and magnates, and indeed the polluting dictators mentioned in the motion. There is a better way possible than that envisaged in the motion, and we need to be clear about that. We in the Labour Party do not believe, for example, that Ireland needs floating LNG terminals. We are open to the development of storage facilities, of course, but only on condition that such facilities can be repurposed for renewables - in other words, they can be future-proofed. To be fair, the Government acknowledges that too, but as a cost control measure and a way of addressing the energy and security crisis, the Labour Party has also called on the Government to take temporary ownership of the Corrib gas field, our indigenous gas supply, which could be provided to the market at cost plus a reasonable margin for the production facility rather than the Government and indeed households having to pay exorbitant costs for gas that is produced here, the price of which should not be set by international conditions. I have called for that already in this House, and I would be glad if the Minister of State would take that call back to his colleagues in the Government.

What Ireland really needs for energy security in the longer term, and medium term, is rapid deployment of offshore wind. That should have been also a short-term approach. Floating LNG is not a sound long-term strategy for Ireland because we all know the future is renewable energy. If as much political energy were to go into resolving why offshore wind development has been so delayed as goes into when we need LNG terminals, we would be in a much more secure position.

As a starting point, we need to ensure that emergency measures are introduced to alleviate pressure on households while we develop urgently our infrastructure for deriving more energy through renewable sources, in particular, offshore wind. We have called for the immediate introduction of a windfall tax on excessive profits for energy companies, an immediate price cap on energy bills and the extension of eligibility for the fuel allowance to ensure that more low- and middle-income households can be brought into the allowance to alleviate hardship in the short term this coming winter. These represent significant measures to get our communities through this winter.

We also need to see vastly enhanced environmental initiatives to incentivise a rapid nationwide switch to renewables to help to meet our climate targets and greatly reduce household bills.

We have called for a climate ticket, unlimited public transport journeys anywhere in Ireland, for €9 a month. Even introducing this on a trial basis would have the added value of helping out hard-pressed households but also helping us all to begin making a real impact on vital climate targets. The Government countermotion is unambitious because it does not seek to do anything as radical as a climate ticket. It does not seek, for example, to double the grant which we should be giving households to invest in solar capacity. That would be a win-win for all. The Government should be incentivising households hugely through much more ambitious measures to ensure they switch to renewables and to solar. Many households are already seeking to do this but are hampered, as we know from recent reports, by the excessive red tape and bureaucracy, the low levels of grants available, and indeed the long delays. There are significant delays on the warmer home scheme with delays in getting repayment of grant aid that is available.

Therefore, the Labour Party believes we need to see an Ireland that works for everyone and an Ireland that works for all, brought about through ambitious and more radical measures from the Government in next week's budget.

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