Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this motion from the Rural Independent Group. It is refreshingly progressive and we will fully support it. The motion is unusual, coming from the quarter it does, in that it does not promote fossil fuels, LNG, Barryroe Offshore Energy or anything else. They are completely absent from it and I am delighted to see that because it is progressive. The motion calls for a reduction in the use of electricity by data centres, which Deputy Kenny has just gone into very thoroughly.

It also covers things like putting a cap on the revenue of the energy companies and details clearly how the profits of the energy companies have skyrocketed out of control, for which there is no justification. The motion also calls for price controls, which is something the Government must look at. It does not make sense. All the previous speakers called for intervention in the market, the market that has failed and that does not work anymore. It is just the obstinacy of the Government preventing us from looking at making an intervention and putting a cap on energy prices.

The other thing the motion does is call strongly for the implementation of a profit solidarity tax. I ask the Minister of State directly when the Government is going to come back to us and talk about this. It was mooted months ago and the Taoiseach said the Government would look at it. Europe is supposed to be looking at a solidarity tax but it is lying there in abeyance while the profits increase.

I will speak a little about what People Before Profit would do in the energy sector. We would do all the above, and agree entirely with the motion from the Rural Independent Group, but we also believe we must renationalise the energy sector and have a Bill coming forward through the Dáil on same. I will go over the arguments again. In the early years of this State, when we had very little in the way of resources and finances coming into the country, we made a decision as a State that there were certain things we had to do. One was to create a housing stock and some kind of a health service but, crucially, to feed into that, we had to create an energy sector. Ardnacrusha and the creation of the ESB and Bord na Móna were attempts by the State to have a not-for-profit mandate electricity system that would turn on the lights and power the entire State, and so they did. The State did this in a progressive way by employing people in decent jobs, giving apprenticeships, keeping the lights on and providing power to every home and business in the country at a very reasonable rate. That reasonable rate was maintained because the ESB in particular had a not-for-profit mandate right up to 2001, when that was changed. The energy sector was deregulated, and thrown open to competition in the open market. The not-for-profit mandate was removed and now we have one of the highest energy costs to the consumer in the entire EU.

People Before Profit believes the renationalisation of the energy sector is the way to go and the simple way to do that is to remove from the ESB the mandate that it must return a profit. All the rest of the businesses competing for profits would fade off into the background, and if they did not, the State could buy them and have one company that produced the electricity and delivered it to homes and businesses throughout the country. The other advantage of that in the current climate is it would take over the production of all offshore energy and all renewable energy power. That would mean renewable energy, which is a natural resource, would not be used as a for-profit tool by these greedy energy companies but would rather be a resource for the people.

I heard other Members refer to this earlier, but the Cost of Living Coalition has been an important tool in putting these arguments to ordinary people, trade unions, pensioners and students and for bringing them together to have a loud voice that tells the Government we will not tolerate this. I note there have been general strikes and protests across Europe over the energy crisis and the cost of living. The cost-of-living crisis has not gone away for us here and the winter will be bitter and cold. Post Christmas, people are really going to feel the pinch. To that end, we will be out marching on the question of housing on 26 November with all the groups I mentioned. This campaign will continue right into the new year until this Government begins to listen.

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