Mick Barry (Cork North Central, Solidarity) | Oireachtas source

I have some questions I wish to ask the Minister of State. I am going to come back into the House at 11.40 a.m. to hear his reply because this is not just an answer I want to hear; there are many pay-as-you-go customers around the country who want to hear the reply to this question.

Yesterday, I asked the Taoiseach about the issue of pay-as-you-go gas and electricity customers and whether they will be included in the moratorium on disconnections. The Taoiseach replied that there will be no energy cuts at Christmas. One of the articles in the Cork Evening Echotoday quoted the Taoiseach as saying, "People will not be cut off Christmas week." I did not get the chance to come back and quiz the Taoiseach on his reply so I am quizzing the Minister of State on it today. What does the Taoiseach mean by that exactly? Has he done a deal with the energy companies and got a commitment from them that there will be no disconnection of pay-as-you-go customers on Christmas week? If he has, he should say so. He should spell it out and give people that guarantee and security. Is this a guesstimate on the part of the Taoiseach? Is he guessing that if he puts €10 million down on the table, which can be drawn down by Alone, Money Advice and Budgeting Service, MABS, and other good organisations of that kind, people will be able to beat a path to the doors of those organisations while they are cooking the Christmas dinner or minding the kids who are off school and handling all the pressures of Christmas in order to access the extra funding? Is that a guesstimate on the part of the Taoiseach? I want the Minister of State to clarify that position. Many people want that position clarified.

A letter was read out on one of my local radio stations in County Cork this morning from a chap who described his experience of being disconnected on more than one occasion over the last week. Of course, the energy industry and some on the Government benches will slyly say he was not disconnected. They will say he was self-disconnected because he could not afford to put more money in the meter. The Minister of State and I both know that is playing with words, however, and that this man and his family were disconnected. The Government has organised this set-up in such a way that it discriminates against pay-as-you-go customers. There is a moratorium in place and a guarantee of no disconnection for bill pay customers from 1 December to the end of February. The same guarantee is not in place for pay-as-you-go customers. The Taoiseach said yesterday there will be no energy cuts at Christmas, however, and he has been quoted as saying that people will not be cut off Christmas week. Is that a guarantee? Is it an agreement with the companies? If so, the Taoiseach should say it and spell it out. If it is not, and he is hitting and hoping, then he should say that as well. That is not good enough. I will be here at 11.40 a.m. for the Minister of State's reply.

I also want to ask the Minister of State about what is going on at the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. I am sure he read the article in thejournal.ieon Monday morning on foot of the investigation that was carried out by Noteworthy. I am searching for the right words - I could not take my eyes off this particular article. Essentially, it said that up until recently, there were 74 vacancies within the CRU and that the organisation has been plagued with staff shortages for a number of years. It went on to report that there had been warnings from within the organisation to the Minister of State's Department that if the recruitment issues were not sorted, blackouts could even be on the agenda as a result. The Tánaiste told the Dáil last week that the country came very close to an amber alert. He said supply and demand would be very tight for the period of the cold snap and that he could not rule out other alerts between here and Christmas.

After the Tánaiste having given that guarantee, the Noteworthy report in thejournal.iehighlighted a range of issues. I do not have time to go through them but I will pick out one or two. The report stated that the CRU has a risk committee, which scored 25 out of 25 for "risk from inadequate resources." That was last year. It was reported that there were competitive auctions for getting more renewable energy on to the grid that had "been delayed due to resource challenges", by which staff shortages were clearly implied. The report went on to state that the regulator warned the Department in April of last year that "rolling blackouts for extended periods" could be on the cards if the staffing issues were not resolved. The report also stated that a commitment was given by the Minister of State's Department that the vacancies would be filled in their entirety within three years. It was reported that a number of key appointments had been made recently but that there were still 60-plus or perhaps 65-plus vacancies at the moment. It seems incredible to me that with the Tánaiste describing things between energy supply and energy demand being very tight in this cold snap, the State is operating to some extent with one hand tied behind its back. This is not just because of the feeding frenzy of the data centres but because of staffing shortages in the CRU, which is charged with overseeing and protecting the people on these issues, that have been there not for a couple of weeks or months but for a number of years.

Warnings have been raised and ignored. Will the Minister of State comment on that?

Supply in the State is tight and my time is tight so I will briefly address a couple of points. I do not have time to develop this but I register again that my focus is on the need to nationalise the energy industry. Both of the issues I have raised relate to this. The profits of the pay-as-you-go companies and their right to disconnect being put above the needs of ordinary families at Christmastime in a cold snap points to the need to end for-profit energy and to run it on a not-for-profit basis through nationalisation.

Regarding reversing the gas and electricity price hikes, the State has a company, namely, the ESB, through which it could be done and which makes €2 million per day and made €679 million profit last year. If that is not enough to soak it up, it can be supplemented with wealth taxes. If the ESB were to do that, it would put the private operators out of business. They would not be able to compete and people would flock to the ESB if it reversed the price increases and had a mandate of operating on a not-for-profit basis. If workers lose their jobs as a result of that, give them all jobs in the ESB and we will have a State-run energy company operating on a not-for-profit basis. All the Government would need to do then would be to put it under democratic control and management. That is my focus: nationalisation and bringing the prices back to where they were in the summer of last year.

There needs to be a discussion of the price of electricity. Should people be charged what they are charged? It costs €3.3 billion to supply electricity to every household in the State. In other words, for €3.3 billion the Government could supply free electricity to every house in the State. If it did not want to go that far, it could give people half their units for free at a cost of €1.6 billion or a quarter of all units for free for €820 million.

Electricity and energy supply is a basic need. It is a utility in this society and these points need to be put on the agenda and become part of the debate, rather than going in the opposite direction as the Government and capitalist establishment are.

See this speech in context