Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will cut straight to the chase. I thank Deputy Doherty for tabling the motion and I ask the Government to withdraw its countermotion. The Minister mentioned a few payments. He should remember one thing. Governments are supposed to serve the people. The payments the Minister mentioned are taxpayers' money. The Government is giving it back to the same people. It is not targeting it. I refer figures from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul's summary report, Warm, Safe, Connected. It is about energy deprivation. In 2021 the number of people who were unable to keep their homes warm was 160,368; it is now 377,415. In 2021, more than 355,000 people went without heating; in 2022, it was almost 500,000 people. In 2021 the number of people in arrears on utility bills was 350,805; in 2022 it is 469,218 people. They are possibly the people who were not too embarrassed to tell the truth. Many of the speakers mentioned the suffering in families. The people who cannot afford it are paying the most - they are living in deprivation - including the elderly, people with disabilities and, as someone mentioned, people who need medical apparatuses in their homes. I called to a house a while ago of a lady whose four-year-old son was sitting on a cushion and needed oxygen 24-7. She was worried about how she would pay for the pump. I left that house in tears because what can be said to these people?

The Minister mentioned going to social welfare offices for payments if a person is lucky but embarrassment is attached to it. This motion is about the fact that we must look after our people. It is in the report and it is in many other reports that one in ten people is going to food banks. It is not too long ago that I remember a food bank being opened not too far from me - not in my constituency - while the country was supposed to be booming. We certainly must stop the companies from price gouging.

We must also remember that small businesses are struggling. I spoke on a Topical Issue matter a while ago about a businessman whose electricity bill went from €44,000 to €70,000. It is not sustainable.

We have to get realistic on this. I ask the Minister to withdraw the countermotion and do the right thing for the people we in this House are supposed to serve.

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