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

I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes:

— that the latest round of energy price hikes announced by energy providers is putting severe financial pressure on people;

— that households are facing extraordinary costs to light and heat their homes this winter, and will need equivalent support from the Government and the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) during this time;

— that, in the first half of 2022, there were 712 domestic electricity and 309 domestic gas disconnections due to non-payment of account;

— that there are 260,000 residential electricity pre-pay customers and 118,000 residential pre-pay gas customers;

— the lack of research and monitoring into so called "self-disconnections", and into the number of people who are disconnected from pre-pay meters;

— that Sinn Féin's Electricity Regulation (Amendment) (Prohibition of Winter Disconnections) Bill 2021 sought to extend the moratorium on disconnections to run over the entire Fuel Allowance season, to give financially struggling households assurance that they will not be left in the cold and dark during the winter months;

— that the Government delayed the second reading of the Electricity Regulation (Amendment) (Prohibition of Winter Disconnections) Bill 2021 by 12 months; and

— the CRU confirmation, at the meeting of the Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Climate Action, that they lack the legislative remit to regulate standing charges on utility bills;

acknowledges

— that households need financial and regulatory support during this energy price crisis, not the threat of disconnections hanging over them;

condemns

— the Government's failure to put in place a protection from disconnections for those who use pre-pay meters; and

calls for:

— a moratorium on disconnections to be immediately put in place for all households until the end of the Fuel Allowance season;

— the friendly credit on pre-pay meters to be extended for the duration of the ban on disconnections to give pre-pay meter households the same protection from disconnections as other households;

— legislation to be introduced to give the CRU powers to regulate standing charges on energy bills;

— the Government to reduce and cap the price of electricity bills at summer 2021 rates; and

— a windfall solidarity tax to be introduced on the excess profits of energy companies.

This motion seeks to do a number of important things. It seeks to extend the moratorium on electricity and gas disconnections to all customers from now until the end of the fuel allowance season, which is late March or early April. A ban on disconnections is currently in place but it is far too limited. It applies to self-identified and registered medically vulnerable bill-pay customers. In other words, it applies to a subset, self-identified, of a subset, registered, of a subset, medically vulnerable, of a subset, bill-pay. It was introduced on 1 October and runs until the end of the March. It is far too limited in its scope. For other bill-pay customers the ban on disconnection kicks in from 1 December and runs to the end of February. That is an extremely limited three-month ban at a time when 581,000 people are living below the poverty line according to European Anti-Poverty Network, EAPN, Ireland. This is also a time when up to 43% of people - which is a record, but a conservative estimate - are at risk of or living in energy poverty, according to the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI. It is also a time when the Government’s budget is failing to keep pace with the cost of living, according to the Vincentian research centre. It is also a time when energy suppliers are disconnecting approximately 170 domestic gas and electricity customers every month.

In the case of pay-as-you-go customers, there is no ban on disconnections despite the Taoiseach’s public comments, which gave rise to headlines such as "Taoiseach confirms pay-as-you-go utility customers will not be disconnected if unable to top up", "Taoiseach: no disconnections of pay-as-you-go energy users this winter" and "Pay-as-you-go energy customers will not be disconnected this winter – Taoiseach". In the days and weeks that followed those statements, it became quite clear that the Taoiseach had no intention of delivering on that commitment. Instead, people were told that there would be a €10 extra emergency credit. It has now increased to €20. Is that enough? People were told to contact the Money Advice & Budgeting Service, MABS, or the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. In other words, they were told to make contact with charities. That is not the answer. People were told to go to the community welfare officer. This shows just how out of touch this Government and its Ministers are. In the first nine months of this year, the number of exceptional needs claims increased by 66,000, or 37%. Claims are processed in weeks or months, not hours or even days. That is most certainly not the answer.

We were told that the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, was meeting with all the energy suppliers and with the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. There was some indication that we would have movement. Instead the Minister came away from those meetings and with a straight face went on national radio to tell us that pay-as-you-go is actually good for people.

Nothing was said about the rip-off tariffs that they are on, the rip-off standing charges being applied or the number of medically vulnerable people who are on pay-as-you-go meters and should be on bill pay and most certainly nothing was said about the need to extend the exact same protections and supports to pay-as-you-go customers as we have for bill-pay customers. As we set out in our motion, it can and should be done through the extension of the so-called friendly credit and it should happen immediately. The risk of disconnection from gas and electricity should be lifted from families. It is a matter of the values that we, as a country, hold in this Republic.

Our motion also calls for legislation to be introduced to give the CRU powers to regulate standing charges on energy bills. We further call on the Government to reduce and cap the price of electricity bills at summer 2021 rates and to introduce a windfall and solidarity tax on the excess profits of energy companies.

This is a time of extreme crises – an energy crisis and a cost-of-living crisis. The State needs to stretch itself. This Government took the recommendations at face value from the CRU and did nothing with them. They should have been stress tested and challenged. That organisation does not hold up well in the current climate. They should have been challenged and extended. Sinn Féin has a suite of proposals that the Minister needs to take and implement.

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