Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

The three €200 energy credits will be refused by no one. However, many people see that they are of particular value to the for-profit energy companies that are increasing their prices while making massive profits and will end up with this money in their accounts boosting those profits. The Government argues that fixing prices at 2021 rates would be to write a blank cheque for the big energy companies. That is why socialists call for price controls, on the one hand, and the nationalisation of energy companies, on the other. Energy provision in this country used to be in the hands of the State-owned ESB. The people of Ireland were promised that deregulation and liberalisation, in other words, opening the energy market up to the private sector companies and big corporations, would result in cheaper electricity. What has been the experience? The three key EU directives relating to liberalisation where those of 1996, 2003 and 2007. What happened in that time? In the 20 years between 1994 and 2014, electricity prices rose by 267% in this State. That is more than three times the rate of inflation, which for those 20 years was 78%. In terms of household bills, if one excludes VAT and the extra public service obligation, PSO, levies. etc., this equals an increase of €758 per household. Essentially, what happened is that the ESB's prices increased sharply in order to facilitate the private companies coming into the market. The ESB would have been unable to compete with them if its prices had not increased. Households were forced to pay a heavy price to facilitate the entry of those companies into the market.

The deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation of electricity has, therefore, been a disaster for ordinary people. It has, of course, been a bonanza for the big private energy providers. At the sharp end of this neoliberal drive has been the pay-as-you-go companies, which charge a higher tariff to generally lower-income households with the threat of disconnection at the very core of their business model. It is the refusal of the Government to stand on the toes of these companies that has got it into the tangle in which it finds itself in the context of the current pay-as-you-go controversy. The liberalisation, deregulation and privatisation process should be completely reversed. Energy provision, both pay-as-you-go and non-pay-as-you-go, should be renationalised and energy run for people, not profit.

There needs to be a debate about the decommodification of electricity. If we strip out profit and VAT and other taxes, it costs €3.3 billion to provide electricity to every household in the State at wholesale prices. In other words, electricity could be provided free of charge to every household in the State for €3.3 billion, or a free electricity allowance could be provided to every household for half of the average household usage for €1.6 billion with an allowance of one quarter for €820 million. This is not 1927; electricity is a basic utility without which a decent life and participation in society are impossible. Like water, it is a basic need and a basic utility.

For now, my focus is on fixing prices at 2021 levels and renationalising the sector. This point about a free allowance of electricity as a basic right is a point to which I will return in future, however. This is my final point. The deregulation and privatisation process has also been a disaster for climate. The switch to profit being the guide has set Ireland and Europe back a generation in terms of the transition to renewables. In 2011, $131.7 billion was invested in renewables in Europe. In 2019, the figure was €58 billion. The amount being invested has more than halved because of the lack of a short-term profit fix for this. We need investment in renewables. This is only going to happen on a consistent basis if it is not a quick fix, quick hit for profit. It will only be if there is public ownership, which means nationalisation of the energy industry throughout the whole of the European Union, and if the sector is run on the basis of workers' control and management for society's needs, not for the profits of the few.

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