Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

For four weeks we have been raising the issue of disconnections for pay-as-you-go customers in the Dáil. What have we got so far from the Government? We have got a lot of spin, yielding some false headlines and false hope for people on prepay meters. These include headlines stating that the Taoiseach had reassured prepay customers they would not be disconnected this winter. When it comes to action to protect the 340,000 households on electricity prepay meters and the tens of thousands of others on gas prepay meters we have got nothing. The Government says it will not oppose the motion, so the Dáil will say these people should be protected from disconnections. I am sorry to say, though, that this will not protect people from disconnections. The Government has refused to take the simple actions it needs to take to stop the disconnections of prepay customers this winter. Those actions are to extend emergency credit and remove the exit fees to transfer from the prepay power companies to other companies. As matters stand, people will be disconnected this winter and that will be on the Government.

The awful phrase of self-disconnections is being used. This is the idea that people are somehow choosing to disconnect by running out of money. As a result of the cost-of-living and housing crises, they are not able to put any more money in their meters to pay for electricity or heat so the heat is going out and the lights are going off. It is not a choice in any sense. I even had a case a couple of weeks ago of a woman who was not only self-disconnected but the company, PrepayPower, attempted to physically completely disconnect her gas supply. She was informed she had been disconnected because she had not topped up her account in 180 days. Even though there was credit on the account, the company attempted to disconnect Mary Byrne from Tallaght because she had not topped up or activated the account for 180 days.

There will be more horror stories like this if the Government refuses to act. Why does it refuse to act? Is it the case that it just did not think about this? I do not think so. It is because it is utterly out of touch with the 340,000 households in question and utterly in touch with the demands and needs of the corporations. These are predatory companies that prey on people and make huge money out of charging them extra because they are on prepay meters. They effectively hold people hostage by charging massive exit fees. The Government is simply doing what those companies want. If it did what was necessary and got rid of the exit fees and the extended emergency credit, everyone would leave these companies and the Government simply does not want to do that.

Who are these companies? Three millionaires control the Irish prepay energy market. Ulric Kenny and Andrew Collins are on the Irish rich list and own PrepayPower, while Pinergy is owned by multibillionaire Peter Coates, who has wealth of over £8 billion. These are the people who will determine if over 300,000 households will have electricity and gas to light and heat their homes this winter. These companies operate with complicated fee and charging structures that lack transparency and are designed to trap people, for fear of triggering up to several hundred euro in exit fees if they try to leave. This is the reality of the marketplace. The Government accepts that the profits of these three people come before the heat and lighting needs of 500,000 people. The predatory nature and impoverishing effects of capitalism are laid bare in the energy market that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael worked so long and hard to deregulate and privatise in order that the rich get richer and the poor get cold.

These prepay predators should be shut down and households should be moved to bill pay accounts as part of a nationalised and not-for-profit electricity system that puts the needs of the many before the profits of the few. We need price controls, namely, maximum unit prices that should apply to prepay electricity, just as they apply to bill pay accounts. This would stop the extortionate charges. If there are price controls in place and these rich individuals are left in control of our energy market, their ongoing profiteering will have to be subsidised. You cannot control what you do not own. For this reason, we have to nationalise the energy industry. We have to take it out of the hands of those who are running it in the interest of profit and instead run it for public need on a not-for-profit basis. The climate crisis is too important and the cost-of-living crisis too severe for us to leave this in the hands of the market any longer. We have to nationalise the energy system and use it to electrify everything in our economy that can be electrified, while simultaneously moving as rapidly and justly as possible to 100% renewable energy. That will only be done on the basis of public ownership and democratic control that determines that this is a priority, even if nobody can make a profit from it.

I welcome the motion but I also call on Sinn Féin to join us in calling for nationalisation. I call on Sinn Féin to state that if it leads the next Government, it will nationalise the energy system because it is what needs to be done. That will add to the pressure on the Government to do what needs to happen.

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