Eoin Ó Broin (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague Deputy O'Rourke for tabling this very important motion. As the Minister knows, I represent one of those constituencies that has a larger than average percentage of households on low or very modest incomes. I represent large urban areas where people are in poorly paid, precarious and part-time employment. Many of those people do not get to choose the type of energy supply that they have because they live predominantly in the private rental sector. That means they do not get to choose or control whether they pay with pre-pay meters or with a bill.

These people are more likely to be at risk of poverty, including energy poverty, and least able to absorb the significant costs of which the Minister will be well aware, whether that is the cost of energy, food, fuel or rent. I often wonder whether Government Ministers, many of whom do not have direct experience of the reality with which families such as those of whom I am speaking deal day to day, are fully cognisant of the exclusions that are included when they sit down to make laws and devise schemes. That is why this is such an important motion. The idea that the Government has designed a scheme that, in effect, ignores the needs of almost 400,000 households - some of the households that are most vulnerable to poverty, including energy poverty - is remarkable. It is no surprise that Travellers are completely excluded from the measures the Government has taken today. Due to the informal arrangements on many Traveller-specific accommodation sites, Travellers who most need this protection will not be able to avail of the discounts and protections on the bands.

I urge the Minister to put party politics to one side and listen carefully to what many Members have to say but, more important, to think about the people who are not being protected by the measures he has introduced. I urge him to go back to the drawing board, not only by supporting the motion but by revising the measures he has brought in, to ensure, in particular, that the families who need it most get the protection. This week alone, I have dealt with two single parents, both of whom are in precarious part-time employment, desperately trying to do right by their children, and have experienced the threat of disconnection. Please, do not let those families down. Please, support the motion.

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