Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Last week I raised the issue of massive electricity bills received by a 100-year-old woman and a 77-year-old man. Since then, horrendous stories started to pour in about excessive electricity bills and people not knowing how they will pay them.

I spoke to a carer the other day. She takes care of an 89-year-old woman. When she visited that woman last week, she had a coat and a scarf on in her own home in the middle of the day to keep warm. She will not boil the kettle between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the evening because of the cost of electricity. This is how old and vulnerable people are living in this country.

Over the past two years, soaring wholesale gas prices have pushed up domestic energy costs to unprecedented heights. It is the same for home heating oil where four-in-ten households use home heating oil for central heating.

Petrol and diesel on the world market has gone down by 40% from $139 a barrel to $77. Why are we not seeing this at the pumps, while these energy companies are making eye-watering profits and one third of our people are in energy poverty?

The emotional and mental health issues these bills are causing people cannot be overstated. People with disabilities or ill-health and people with children fear living in cold and damp houses.

All the while, the Government is still talking about bringing in a windfall tax on these energy companies. Either the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is so far out of touch with what the people are going through or it is not a priority for the Government. Let me tell the Minister about a man who bought a wood-pellet stove one year ago, replacing solid fuel to cut down on emissions. The stove cost €5,000. Fitting it cost €1,500. A 15 kg bag of pellets cost €4.50. Today, the price of the bag of pellets is from €10 to €12. With the cost of wood pellets going through the roof, it is essential for the Government to take steps to make wood pellets affordable and to make sure wood pellets, as an alternative to coal, turf, etc., are seen as affordable by many struggling families who made the change to wood-pellet stoves as recently as a year ago but who are now paying more than double the price for pellets. Many people are now talking about taking out the wood-pellet stoves because of the cost. This is how the green agenda is working for ordinary people in Meath West and other parts of the country.

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