Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am grateful to my colleagues for allowing me some of their time. The Government, which has a controlling shareholding of 95% in the ESB, failed to protect consumers by explicitly directing the ESB to either cap prices or not proceed with any price increases at this time. Such action by the Government would have been possible and would have sent a clear message to other price-gouging electricity providers, as the ESB is the benchmark price-setting organisation for the electricity market in Ireland.

What the Minister of State and his Government are presiding over is absolute and total chaos. Never before have people been hit with such energy costs. While I welcome the money that is to be given in a couple of tranches, which will be needed and wanted, what the people really wanted was a cap on prices. Giving a subsidy like that being given is like spitting in the ocean. If the price keeps going the way it is going, people will not be able to heat their homes or work their electric products because they will be quite simply unable to pay the ESB bill.

This country is full of small businesses. They are the backbone of Ireland, particularly rural Ireland. I am talking about the farmers who use electricity in milking cows along with pig farms, poultry farms and the horticultural industry. People are quite simply being forced out of business. I remind the Minister of State that many businesses in County Kerry got a final death blow of a letter in the post telling them that their rates are being reviewed. A business in Killarney is facing an increase of €30,000 in its rates. How could any government stand by and allow that to happen at this time? Surely the Government would have had the cop-on to realise that now is not the time to increase people's rates. I plead with the Minister of State and the people who thought it was a good idea to make it illegal to sell turf from service stations from the end of this month. Where is the sense in that? How can the Minister of State stand over it?

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