Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important motion. I thank my colleagues Deputies O'Rourke and Doherty for tabling it. Energy costs remain extortionately high for households. Frankly, it is not good enough that the Government has announced no meaningful supports for ordinary people until October. It is not good enough that energy companies enjoy excess profits at the expense of households trying to get by. The latest report from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul on energy poverty makes for harrowing reading. I worked with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and I know what it is like both for those who come in and those on the opposite side of the counter trying to help.

I particularly want to draw the attention of the Minister to the fact that energy poverty impacts more on older households. The Ministers said a few minutes ago that people should not go without. He needs to live in the real world. Page 16 of the report of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul outlines how 7% of older single adults are experiencing utility bill arrears. The sharp increase is due to the Government's failure to act. Older people have raised families. They have worked and paid their taxes all of their lives. Now they are rationing heating due to out-of-control energy costs. It is tragic that at a time when older people should be enjoying the fruits of their labour, they are instead shivering from the cold or frightened at the thoughts of the next bill.

My office is inundated with calls and emails from people struggling to get by. Recently I met a young man who decided he would return to education but who has been landed with an energy bill of €545 for one month. He is a single man living in an apartment on the housing assistance payment. My office has explored every possibility and every avenue open to see whether we can do something but, sadly, it looks like he will go into arrears. I am sure the office of the Minister is also inundated with similar heartbreaking cases, although sometimes I wonder. I urge the Minister to support our motion and help those who need it most by providing them with financial relief and capping electricity prices at pre-Ukraine war levels. In his speech, the Minister spoke about Putin losing. The only ones I see losing at present are our elderly. The Government needs to do something or get out.

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