Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It should not come as a surprise or shock to anyone to hear that every price increase that comes from energy companies puts more and more pressure on struggling households. Surely we can all agree on that in the House. The Minister believes that the proposals he is putting forward are sufficient. The argument we are putting forward from this side of the House is that they are not and that he is not doing enough. Many workers and their families are left wondering how they are going to afford the bills that keep coming into their homes. Other Deputies will speak about their constituencies. If the Minister wants to come to my area, I can bring him to shopping centres where there are elderly people tonight, sitting in the shopping centres because they cannot afford to put the heating on in their own home. That is happening now, not in December or February, when we will be talking about disconnections. The weather in Ireland does not get warmer at the end of February. We are arguing that this should at least be extended until March. I ask the Minister to look at this and to show some heart to those families.

The other big issue is that we are talking about people being disconnected. We need to look at ways of stopping that. There are simple measures and, for example, the Minister could extend this for another month, which would have a huge impact on many families. Households need assurances and, again, that was the difference between ourselves and the Government in regard to the budget. We are arguing that energy assurances need to be given to people but the Government argues that this route is better. People will get some increases, such as social welfare increases and so on, but is it going to be enough? I would argue it is not enough for ordinary families. It is probably not the whole population, but a sizeable number of people are vulnerable and they are going to be more vulnerable as these prices increase. I again ask the Minister to think on his position when the vote comes.

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