Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is a sense of déjà vuwith this Bill because we have been here before. In February this year, we debated an almost identical Bill. During those debates Sinn Féin submitted amendments to the original electricity credit Bill removing the references to it being a once-off measure as we said that was not reflective of the crisis we were facing into and more assistance would be needed down the line. At the time, I said:

A once-off discount is short-sighted and it is clear that more needs to be done. There are no indications that the energy price hikes are going to stop any time soon. With political instability in Ukraine and Russia, international gas prices could increase further this year. Our amendments would give the Minister power to make further payments to households, removing the need for more primary legislation down the line and ensuring that it could be done quickly.

Unfortunately, the Government ignored the constructive proposals from the Opposition, as is so often the case, and rejected all the amendments. As a result another piece of primary legislation has had to be drafted and rammed through the parliamentary process in an uncomfortably quick timeframe. I ask the Minister to take on board some of the Opposition’s amendments this time around. Those amendments cover a number of areas.

The broad, blunt nature of the original electricity credit Bill gave rise to a number of issues that we asked to be rectified. Those included people being excluded from the payment altogether, households with a shared meter not receiving the full amount and people with vacant holiday homes, empty houses or multiple properties receiving a number of payments. With almost 12 months to prepare and re-prepare this legislation, it is inexcusable that none of these issues seem to have been adequately addressed. People with holiday homes lying idle for most of the year will now get even more money to help keep the lights on. The most recent census identified 61,204 holiday homes in the State. It is outrageous that these vacant holiday homes have still not been excluded from this scheme. On top of the previous €200, they will now get another €600. That is a total of almost €50 million of taxpayers' money to keep the lights on in the second homes of predominantly well-off individuals. It is an atrocious waste of money. Yet again, those with the greatest means will benefit most while those in severe energy poverty will get the same support as a millionaire.

Similarly, people living in halting sites or in mobile homes were excluded from the original payment. We repeatedly asked for that to be addressed in recent months. The briefing note we received, which was reflected in the Minister's comments, states that approximately 1,000 Traveller households in local authority accommodation were excluded from the original payment. It goes on to say the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications is working with the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage on how best to reach these households with future support.

That is simply not good enough. It is eight months since the original scheme was introduced. Some of these households are living in extreme energy poverty and need immediate assistance. Saying that we are working on it is not good enough. The Minister needs to commit to ensuring these families will receive the full €600 this winter on top of the €200 they did not get originally. If the Departments cannot find a way to do this, they should give the money to local authorities or groups like the National Traveller Money Advice & Budgeting Service and ask them to distribute cash payments to these households. It is essential that they get immediate support to help cover their electricity bills.

A number of Sinn Féin amendments to this Bill seek to prevent disconnections of pay-as-you-go customers. The Government has been caught asleep at the wheel on this issue. Despite 346,000 households using prepay meters, the Government has no plan and seems to be making it up as it goes along. The Taoiseach went on national radio a couple of weeks ago and assured people they would not be disconnected this winter, but the Government did not have a plan for pay-as-you-go households. Last week, when my colleague an Teachta Doherty raised this on Leaders' Questions, the Tánaiste threw the ball back to the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and said that the latter was meeting with energy companies to come up with a solution. Meanwhile, pay-as-you-go customers are none the wiser as they face into a dreadfully unaffordable winter.

The Minister must commit to extending the moratorium on disconnections to all pay-as-you-go customers. They should not have any less protection than bill pay customers. It is simply a matter of fairness and equality. Whether this is achieved by increasing the emergency credit limit, removing the limit altogether, extending the so-called friendly credit period when disconnections do not take place or moving people to bill pay without financial penalties, the Minister can pursue a number of options. This should have been done already. In addition, we want to see the moratorium for all households extended from now to the end of March; December to February is not enough. We are in a time of extraordinary price increases, so much greater protections are needed.

Sinn Féin has made its position clear . We believe an electricity price cap is needed this winter to give households certainty. We need to reduce electricity prices back to pre-crisis levels and cap them. Price caps have been introduced right across Europe but the Government has chosen a different path of giving three energy credits this winter. Although we disagree with this approach, we will support the Bill because the €550 in electricity credits will still help offset some costs for people this winter.

EU energy reforms are badly needed. Last October, the Government opposed proposals at EU level to decouple electricity prices from the gas market. At that time, the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications co-signed a statement to the effect that "we cannot support any measure that conflicts with the internal gas and electricity market". Currently, the price of gas is dictating the price of all electricity, which is pushing electricity prices to extortionate levels. The energy market is fundamentally broken and needs to be radically reformed. While I welcome the Minister’s recent change of heart and his newfound support for decoupling gas from electricity prices, his conversion came very late in the day and a lot of time has been wasted on this front. Can he provide an update on the proposals to decouple at a European level and provide some details on how much Ireland could expect from the windfall tax on non-gas-fuelled electricity generators? Why is the rate of €180 per megawatt hour being considered, given the much lower cost of producing electricity by wind and solar or other renewable sources? Will the Government look to introduce a lower rate? We accept that renewable energy companies still need to a make a profit to reinvest in renewables, but pegging electricity prices to another inflated price is not a good solution.

Another matter that is pushing bills to unaffordable levels is the increase in standing charges utility companies are announcing. Some energy companies have increased their standing charges by €300 in the past year, thereby compounding the financial hardship people are facing. Suppliers are now charging up to €700 a year in standing charges, which is a massive cost before people even switch on a light. The CRU confirmed to the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action a couple of weeks ago that no one is regulating the hikes in standing charges and that it lacks the legislative remit to deal with these charges. It seems that energy companies have free rein to hike standing charges by as much as they want without having to justify it to anyone, or prove a corresponding increase in their fixed costs. It is an absolutely crazy situation. Given the energy price crisis households are facing, every line of their bills must be tackled. Will the Minister commit to introducing legislation or regulations to give the CRU the power to regulate standing charges on energy bills?

I will touch on the revelation last week that domestic electricity customers have been subsidising the energy bills of large energy users for the past decade without anyone seemingly knowing. The Minister, during his stint as the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources in 2010, introduced the large energy user rebalancing subvention. Since then, ordinary households have paid €600 million to subsidise the bills of big companies. This is an extraordinary revelation. The subvention in question did not appear as a line item on people’s bills, so no one was aware they were paying this levy. Can the Minister explain why this charge was never removed on domestic bills, the companies that benefited and how long he intended it to be in place when he originally introduced it? These are important details that need to be known.

We will support this Bill but hold the position that reducing electricity prices to pre-crisis levels, and capping them at that cost this winter, is a better solution and will give households much greater certainty. Reform of the energy market is needed. It was needed 12 months ago when this Government opposed it and it is still needed now. A windfall tax on non-gas electricity generators and a solidarity windfall tax on energy companies should also be introduced. I also encourage the Minister of State to look at the amendments tabled by the Opposition and commit to supporting them.

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