Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My colleagues have already pointed out that this week we heard the news that Electric Ireland would reduce its prices for some of its business customers but not for households. I have to admit I could not believe this when I heard it. We have energy companies making bizarre sums of money and record profits off the backs of households that are struggling to get by. In recent months my office has been inundated with people who simply cannot afford to pay their energy costs. They simply cannot afford to pay for their food. It is not something that is just happening in my office. It is happening in offices throughout the State.

I cannot believe the Minister said he is telling people not to go without. Believe you me, people are going without. If he cannot understand at this point that people are going without, he should not listen to me but to Barnardos, which issued a report last week that showed how many parents and families are going without food because they cannot pay the cost of living. If the Government believes a certain reality exists at this time, its members had better start listening to people because it is not the reality for people on the ground.

I have constituents in homes that are so badly insulated they have to pay crazy amounts of money to try to keep them heated. Even then they do not stay heated. There are people who could not get the full energy credit to help cover the rising costs. People may be legally renting a house that has been split up into flats and they all have the same MPRN. This means the house receives only one energy credit. This single credit is then split multiple ways. This is often in substandard accommodation with a low BER and the credit does not go very far.

There will not be much respite for people in the coming months. My colleague Deputy Donnelly has just spoken about the freezing temperatures we are expecting in the coming days and weeks. There is research that states households consume as much, if not more, energy in the months of April, May and June as they do in October, November and December. While this spells trouble for many households, it is great news for energy providers. They can certainly extend their thanks to the Government because there is still no sign of a windfall tax. We heard that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, said previously that it was the wrong direction to go. The Government made the decision not to cap or reduce electricity prices despite governments throughout Europe doing just this. The time to cut energy costs is now.

See this speech in context