Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Deputy Whitmore, for tabling this important motion. The motions process is interesting. Essentially, we table motions that set out what the Government should be doing and then the Government says what it has done. All the while, real consequences are being felt in people's homes.

I wish to throw some light on what is being felt in people's homes and the level of urgency that we need to see from the Government. The price of energy has more than doubled in the past year. Consumer energy bills have increased to an average of €4,300 per year. According to the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, 40% of households are estimated to be living in fuel poverty. Sometimes, we forget what "fuel poverty" means. It means people sitting in the cold because they cannot afford to turn heating on. In December, a consultant geriatrician at the Mater hospital told RTÉ that older people were developing hypothermia in their homes because their homes were so cold.

The energy crisis is a primary driving factor of the cost-of-living crisis that is decimating the incomes of workers and families. This fact was captured perfectly in Barnardos report yesterday, which found that 25% of parents had had to cut down on household bills like gas and electricity in order to afford basics like food. According to the same survey, 30% of parents were going without meals so that their children did not have to. Of all the questions I will ask the Minister today, will he accept that we are living through a crisis? There is chest beating in the Chamber about how we are the fastest-growing economy in the EU, and at the same time older people are experiencing hypothermia in their homes and parents are going without food so that their children do not have to. What has become of our Republic? We are living through an emergency and we need to start treating it as such. We cannot delay essential cost-of-living measures while hundreds of thousands of families around the country are in dire need of help right now.

The report referred to another factor in the cost-of-living crisis. Dublin rents are sitting at €2,300. After energy prices doubled this year, the average cost of gas and electricity has reached a staggering €4,300 per year, dragging 40% of households into energy poverty. These costs are unsustainable. That is why we are calling for urgency. The small businesses that have closed around the country will not feel the benefit of this summer's measures. It will be too little, too late to revive the hundreds of restaurants, pubs and shops that were crippled by rising prices and ignored when they needed help. Even more tragically, the individuals and families who find themselves in massive debt after the past few years of unacceptable pricing and profit by energy companies may never recover.

We need to discuss pricing and profiting by energy companies. At the same time that unimaginable need is being experienced in the homes of families the length and breadth of the country, energy companies have seen major profits. I will discuss an American example. The American giant ExxonMobil made a staggering €51.5 billion in profit in 2022. This equated to a profit of approximately €5.8 million every hour. Its CEO stated that it was benefiting from a "favourable market". That favourable market is war – the war in Ukraine, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, razed entire cities to the ground and caused the largest refugee crisis in Europe since the Second World War.

A crisis is being experienced in homes, yet here we are still urging the Government to show some urgency and take a war-time-like mentality. The crisis is being experienced in terms of hunger and cold. Dreams, aspirations and quality of life are being destroyed, and that destruction is being exacerbated by inaction.

That is why we are tabling this motion. Although this summer's measures will be welcome, a targeted energy price cap that capped the price of energy usage for households and businesses would provide immediate relief from the rising cost of energy. It would ensure that those experiencing energy poverty could avail of affordable rates for their essential energy needs while those who used a disproportionately large amount of energy paid their fair share. This motion is about fairness. A market price cap will not go far enough for the most vulnerable in our society. A targeted cap would mean that wealthier householders did not disproportionately benefit and would encourage households to save energy, which is in line with our broader climate goals.

As Deputy Whitmore stated, this sort of cap has been introduced in other European countries. There are no reasons not to enact the same in Ireland. We need to be ambitious for our society. More than that, we need to be urgent in protecting our citizens. What greater role is there for government?

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