Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Electricity Costs (Domestic Electricity Accounts) Emergency Measures and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2022 - Second Stage. What a mouthful. The Government does not intend to do anything for the hard-pressed people. Households are facing annual gas and electricity hikes of €6,000 from early next year. That is more than triple the €1,900 they were paying at the start of 2021. Figures have been quoted and I am not going to quote any more of them. What is going on is pure gouging.

I have great respect for the ESB, its workers and outdoor staff and the work they do but the Government's inability to tackle the conglomerates and multibillion dollar companies is sickening. Why can the Minister not do something like he did during the Covid pandemic? Why not introduce emergency legislation to cap prices to bring some kind of respect on them? It is shocking that those companies can get away with those kinds of price hikes. There has been a range of price rises in recent weeks in other utility firms. SSE Airtricity, Community Power and PrepayPower have all hiked up their costs but the ESB showed the lead. If the Government had done something meaningful to deal with the ESB it would have sent the clear message to the other companies that they would not be allowed to gouge ordinary people.

Why does the Government not do something about the standing charges? That would be quite simple. Those charges are exorbitant at the moment. Why does the Government not do something about pay-as-you-go schemes? How are people on those tariffs going to manage? I want something clarified. If there are 20 flats or units with only one MRPN, how are those tenants going to get this money, the so-called manna from heaven the Government is talking about?

Smart meters are far too smart for us all. It is a con job. That is my honest belief about smart meters. I certainly will not be installing one or advising anyone else to do so. The Government is far too smart at taking money out of pócaí na daoine gach lá, gach uair.

The Minister of State might ask the senior Minister about the following. The Minister stood there seachtain ó shin and said there was a licence application in front of him. It was not a licence application but a continuation of a licence that a company already had for Ballyroe. He said he would have an answer in a few days but that was two and a half weeks ago. He is playing with these serious issues. They are sitting on his desk and he is refusing point blank to deal with them. He is kicking the can down the road and trying to hunt good investors we have in Ireland, which are bringing us in energy at no cost to the taxpayer. They are spending their own money.

I have ceist eile for the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. I met a group of people last week with my colleagues.

They informed me that the Kinsale gas pipeline is not being used now. Tá sé folamh; it is empty but it is in great condition. I am shocked to hear this but we are told, and it is not dúirt bean liom go ndúirt bean léi go raibh fear i dTiobraid Árann a bhfuil póca ina léine aige but pretty hot information, that the Minister, Deputy Ryan, is waiting to sign a directive that is on his desk to carry out an act of national sabotage on that pipeline. I would go so far as to call it high treason to put ready mix concrete, which will probably have a 10% cost increase on it, into that pipeline to render it unusable ever again. I want the Minister of State to answer that question. If that happens, the Minister, and members of the Government with him, should be dragged out of the Government and people should rise up here and say enough is enough. What kind of thinking or mind would anybody have to damage a piece of infrastructure? If someone did it, we would send an Garda to arrest that person. The Minister will sign this order to send employees of ready mix concrete companies and others to pour concrete into a gas line that was laid and has served this country for decades. It is still intact and ready to be used again but the Minister wants to put ready mix into it so it can never be used again because of an ideology. The lunatics are definitely running the asylum if that happens.

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