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

We are in the midst of an unprecedented trilemma comprising three crises. There is the housing crisis that our President has rightly described as a housing disaster and which is hitting many families and households very hard. There is a cost-of-living, energy bills and energy security crisis that is affecting millions of people across the country, exacerbated by Putin's brutal invasion of Ukraine and his escalation of the war in that country. Of course, there is also the climate crisis, the existential threat that destroyed towns and communities across Europe this summer and which threatens all of our existence. These emergencies demand bold leadership.

I will start by discussing the matter at hand, the energy and cost-of-living crises of which people are so fearful as we face into the winter ahead with rising energy bills. We cannot divorce the crisis in people's ability to pay for energy from the wider economic model we have because the cost-of-living and energy bill crises expose the deep insecurity baked into our economy. Well before the onset of the awful war in Ukraine this spring, there was already a serious issue with our economy, a low-pay, high-cost economy in which many people were living from pay cheque to pay cheque without any savings or security with which to face any sort of crisis. I am not just talking about those on the lowest incomes. Many middle-income earners are seeing their economic security undercut by rising prices. Of course, that has increasingly been the case this year. I have spoken before about meeting couples and families in my own constituency who have told me that, a year ago, their incomes were perfectly adequate to meet the costs of childcare, rent or a mortgage, food and energy but that they are no longer enough as the inflation rate rises and energy and food bills spiral. Fixing the broken economic model of low wages is the fundamental challenge if we are to change our country for the better. An increase in take-home pay is the best way to help working people and families to keep up with rising costs. We need to see the power of employees to negotiate pay rates and salaries with their employers strengthened. As a lifelong trade unionist, I want to see stronger rights for unions to bargain collectively on behalf of their members in respect of employees' pay and conditions.

Along with ensuring that Ireland gets a pay rise and that we see pay rises for employees, we should also look at solutions being pursued by our European partners and must review policies that have already been implemented in this country with a view to supporting individuals through the crisis. That is why measures in the budget were disappointing to us in the Labour Party.

Increasing numbers of households are now facing stark choices between heating and eating, and up to half of all households may be in energy poverty in the months ahead. Ireland is just not working for far too many people, including individuals, families, households and businesses. Sadly, rather than providing a more sustainable pathway forward in the budget, it might have been better described as a treadmill budget, or a budget for standing still, without the sort of long-term sustainable measures we needed. Lots of money was put forward by the Government for once-off measures but ultimately there was no sense of forward momentum or progressive movement and no sense that the budget will do anything other than provide a short-term quick fix, which is likely to wear off very quickly, before the new year. The signs are grim that we may need another budget in the new year once the benefit of the short-term measures has faded away.

In respect of the specific measure contained in this Bill, it will be welcome in easing the burden for many households and families. We in the Labour Party will certainly support this initiative but it bears repeating that it may not be in any way sufficient to meet the real hardship due to rising energy costs. Over the last 18 months, average household annual electricity bills have doubled to more than €2,000, with an additional €1,200 expected to be added on to the average Irish household bill. Coupled with wholesale natural gas price increases, we are looking at average bills of up to €4,000 per year. Businesses are facing astronomical increases in bills. I met today with business owners who told me about the sort of bills across hotels and the hospitality sector. In retail, small food businesses are facing massive hikes in their energy bills.

For households looking at the increases that are already in place and envisaged in the months ahead, a €600 energy credit, while welcome, will cover only a small portion of the higher cost of electricity. While any assistance is better than none, we would have preferred to see measures such as those included in our proposed alternative budget instead. For starters, we would have implemented a cap on energy prices. We want to see what the Government is going to about this at a European level. It appears that there will be some sort of EU-wide cap, and that will be very welcome, but we could have done that at a national level. We would have provided a €60 per pupil energy capitation grant winter payment for schools. We would have provided a once-off €400 refundable carbon tax credit for 500,000 of the hardest-pressed families. We would also have invested more in the fuel allowance in order to increase eligibility and provide lengthier payments.

The Labour Party led the way in back in January in calling for a windfall tax on the profits of energy companies, when the Government wanted to adopt a wait-and-see policy within Europe. Action could have been taken then and a measure could have been adopted that would have provided real help through a tax on the windfall profits of energy companies. We need that to be done now. I listened with interest to the contribution of Pat Fenlon of the ESB to the Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action. He said that increased profits in the power generation wing of the ESB could not be used to offset prices by Electric Ireland as the two sections must operate independently. I do not intend to use the ESB as a pariah but its profits soared in the first six months of this year. It is hard to accept that it is not within the Government’s gift to pass the benefit of those profits on to ordinary households and small businesses.

We would also have liked to see a cap on energy prices. Such a measure is undoubtedly complex to design and cost and we acknowledge that. In our alternative budget, we allocated €2.1 billion to support such a measure for households and business, not just through this winter but into next year as well. A cap would have ensured that all sectors of society could benefit from lower energy prices. Many EU countries have already taken this approach at a national level while awaiting EU-wide initiatives. Indeed, Spain and Portugal have provided a model where they limited the price of gas in electricity production, effectively subsidising gas generators since June and reducing consumers’ bills by between 15% and 20%. This so-called Iberian model was the subject of some debate at an emergency meeting of energy ministers from EU member states last month.

Fundamentally, energy should be viewed as a common good, especially at this time. The central point to any political debate on energy price caps is that there is more the Government could be doing but there is an unwillingness to address the issue in a meaningful way. The Iberian model brought forward by our sister social democratic parties in Spain and Portugal has shown the type of proactive measures social democratic and left-wing governments can take to protect their citizens from the fallout of Putin’s brutal war on Ukraine. At the very least, domestic electricity credits should feature clawback mechanisms such as the withdrawal of income tax credits from those earning over €100,000. A levy equivalent to the electricity credit could be applied to holiday homes and vacant housing, modelled on the previous non-principal private residence charge, to avoid those with multiple properties benefiting to a disproportionate degree.

I also want to relay the concerns of constituents of mine who are tenants in the private rental sector. I represent a constituency in Dublin Bay South with more than double the national average of households in private rental accommodation. This is a serious issue for so many of the people I represent. A tenant in rented accommodation who pays the landlord directly for their electricity rather than paying the electricity provider should have the benefit of the credit passed on by the landlord. If the landlord pays the electricity bill, it will likely be up to them whether or not they pass on any of the money. This was the case for the previous electricity credit earlier this year. Has the Department gathered any data on the number of cases adjudicated by the Residential Tenancies Board, RTB, where a dispute arose as to who should receive the energy credit in a rental household, in respect of the earlier credit granted? This was a serious issue. It is merely anecdotal at this point but I have heard of cases where tenants have been threatened when they raised the matter of receiving the credit with the landlord. In recognition of the power imbalance that exists between tenants and their landlords, which is very marked during the housing crisis with so little supply of private rental accommodation available, I am asking the Government to examine how to ensure renters receive the full sum of the credit where it is owed to them.

We have also been pressing for an eviction ban to be introduced by the Government over the winter. I believe it can be done in a constitutional way that is short term and limited, with necessary provisos. Without the introduction of such a ban, the reality is that many of the measures the Government is proposing in order to ease the burden on renters will fail to address their core concerns. For example, I raised earlier with the Taoiseach the issue of the €500 tax credit for renters. There is a serious concern that it will not apply to all renters. It will not apply to those renting under a licence, for example, or renting a room in a landlord’s home that does not fall within the rent-a-room scheme. I sought clarity on that from the Taoiseach and he was unable to give me that clarity. It is a minuscule amount compared to the levels of rent people are paying. Some are paying €2,000 per month in my constituency so a €500 annual credit is very little but it is essential that it be applicable to all renters, at the very least.

I also wish to highlight the call of the Irish Traveller Movement for the Government to ensure equitable treatment for Travellers under the credit scheme, just as I am looking for equitable treatment for renters. The Irish Traveller Movement has heard from a number of Travellers who did not receive the first €200 credit earlier this year. The group pointed out that on a site where 22 families share six meter point reference numbers, each family was credited with just €22. While the credits are not adequate to address the real hardship of rising energy bills, it is nonetheless important that they be applicable equitably to all people, particularly those in vulnerable communities such as those who are renting and those in the Traveller community.

I would like to acknowledge, as I am sure we all would, that yesterday marked the seventh anniversary of the Carrickmines fire disaster. That anniversary reminds us all of the need for the State to address the systemic inequalities faced by our Traveller community.

On the matter of energy bills, there is a strong correlation between those who live in well-insulated homes and those who do not have the same struggles with energy costs. Clearly, the way of the future is to have a high BER-rated home, one that is powered in a sustainable way by renewables and where the issue of rising energy costs and reliance on fossil fuels no longer arises. Let us acknowledge that there is a small number of households across the country, in new homes built to appropriate standards with reliance on renewables, where energy bills do not induce the same fear as they do for so many households that are utterly reliant on fossil fuels. I would use this opportunity to reiterate the need to ramp up retrofitting supports and remove the red tape in the so-called one-stop shop initiatives to ensure retrofitting is made available and accessible to all households, rather than how it is at present.

Again, I hear from so many constituents who tell me about the difficulties, obstacles and bureaucracy involved in trying to access supports for retrofitting. Retrofitting is a fantastic initiative but it may be better described not as a one-stop-shop but as the several-steps and an upfront lump sum shop and a long delay shop when it comes to trying to access the grant subsequent to installing solar panels. It becomes unaffordable and inaccessible for many households and businesses. A number of issues regarding the accessing of retrofitting have been brought to my attention in recent times and I can engage separately with the Minister in written correspondence.

I would like to seek the Minister's views on something I have raised with the Taoiseach on a number of occasions in Leaders’ Questions. It relates to the management of household energy costs and those suffered by small businesses in Ireland. That is the prospect of nationalising - if even on a temporary basis - the Corrib gas field. Those who are reliant on fossil fuels are facing massive costs exacerbated by international factors, notably the war in Ukraine. High gas prices and indeed electricity prices have been driven by the spiralling cost of natural gas. In Ireland, we have significant levels of gas consumption coming from our own Corrib gas field on this island. We know that Vermilion's revenues last year increased by a massive 267%. The cost of production for that gas has not increased. It should not be subject directly to international price increases yet the price of gas supplies is now costing multiples of what it did one year ago. What is the Minister's view on nationalising the Corrib gas field and bringing it under State ownership - even on a temporary basis - to ensure that we can bring greater certainty to those struggling with fuel bills? The State has the power to do so under the Fuels (Control of Supplies) Acts 1971 and 1982. Powers under this legislation were invoked during the oil shortages that followed the Middle East conflict of the 1970s so these powers exist, are available to Government and were used previously. However, the Taoiseach has dismissed that proposal. I ask the Minister and Department officials to undertake a cost-benefit analysis of this initiative to see if it can be carried out. It may sound a radical measure and it is a radical measure but it is also a sensible one. We are facing into this crisis exacerbated by international factors yet we have a domestic supply available.

Let us not lose sight of the real reason families are so vulnerable to the fluctuations of the free market. The energy bills crisis is caused by the fact we are exposed to the roller-coaster of fossil fuel prices. We must not allow the immediate need to reduce hardship while people struggle to pay their bills to serve as a distraction from the urgent need for action to tackle the climate emergency. We all know that it is only by addressing the climate crisis that we can give people that guarantee that their homes will be warm, the air they breathe will be clean, their roads will be safe, and they and their families will not suffer a massive increase in bills because of the State’s addiction to fossil fuels and an international addiction to fossil fuels that is not unique to Ireland. The Paris Agreement signed in 2015 at COP21 has been called the last beacon of hope for renewed multilateral co-operation and international convergence on the global climate emergency. Since then, we have seen a rapidly closing window of opportunity to avoid climate chaos. In its recent assessment report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, IPCC, warned that global warming is happening sooner and more quickly than earlier projections and that its effects are more profound. The World Meteorological Organization recently predicted that the 1.5°C target set by the Paris Agreement for the end of the century could soon be breached. Evidence of global warming multiplies in every part of the world on a daily basis. The exception has suddenly become the new normal. This must come as no surprise when we see that global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions rose by 6% in 2021. The Environmental Protection Agency stated that Ireland’s emissions increased by nearly 5% last year and rose above pre-Covid levels.

It was noted that the rise was largely due to the energy industries sector, which tripled its oil and gas use in electricity generation last year. While measures to support families, households and businesses through the winter are necessary, we also need to be mindful of learning the long-term lessons. We know that in the short and medium term, we must shift fundamentally how we consume and produce energy in this country. I welcome the long-anticipated announcement this week of the waiving of planning permission requirements for the installation of solar energy and recent indications from the Minister that our modes of transport will be changed drastically but we need more of that. Words must turn to action and we must address in the short as well as long term that elephant in the room of systemic change. It is time to reject the neoliberal doctrine of the free market when it comes to something as important as energy. It is time to take drastic action to combat the climate crisis and alongside that, the cost-of-living crisis. We must see no more missed targets, no more moving the goal posts and no more "whataboutery". The hour is too late and the moment is too serious. It is cheaper to save the planet than destroy it. In all our interests and those of future generations, we must be mindful of that as we debate these measures - urgent though they are - to address the real hardship being faced by so many through the cost of living crisis into this winter.

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