Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Minister speaks a lot about hedging and the market. We have all had the briefings from the electricity companies and providers such as Electric Ireland. According to a document we received, the providers state they buy electricity in advance, which is hedging. Electric Ireland says this saved its residential electricity customers €650 over the past two years.

We cannot have this debate without having a fundamental critique of the electricity market and the energy market throughout the European Union. If we rely on a market that hedges its prices or buys forward, then given the shocks that have come into the system because of what is happening in Ukraine and the anticipated future shocks given the geopolitical situation at present, then what is in place by way of a hedging market will not provide the stability households need to be able to pay for their energy costs in future. I am trying to be fair in my analysis and I do not think this is unfair analysis.

This is not personalised in any way but I worry deeply when a Minister of the Green Party speaks about energy independence and accepts the fact there is a market that is hedging by its very nature. I worry when a Minister of the Green Party does not fundamentally critique the nature of this market. Why are we as a country not pushing back against this very issue that places so much uncertainty on households, not only in Ireland or on this island but throughout the European Union? This is something that will have to be fundamentally critiqued because it cannot sustain itself.

I hear the Minister suggesting that somebody can go to the St. Vincent de Paul or can rely on other such means, whether via a charity or via the Department of Social Protection for an additional payment under the supplementary welfare allowance scheme. Let me tell the Minister that, in 2022, the sum total that was spent supporting people to meet the cost of their bills when they presented their case or their application form for supplementary welfare allowance to a community welfare officer was €1.8 million. That is what was spent by the Department of Social Protection through the community welfare officers and through the supplementary welfare allowance scheme in supporting people. In other words, the massive advertising campaign that was undertaken through gov.ieis clearly not working, and despite any attempt by the Government to say somebody can go to the Department of Social Protection for those supports, the evidence is in the meagre amount of money that was spent last year. The Government probably spent less in paying out than it spent on its advertising campaign on the so-called additional needs payment that was trumpeted. This is going to have to be looked at if the Government is to provide real and meaningful support for households to meet the cost of their energy supply.

It is clear to me working families do not know they can access such payments, as I know from my constituency office. The Minister will state it is a matter for the Minister for Social Protection, but if the Minister, Deputy Ryan, comes into this House and says people can access the supplementary welfare allowance scheme, let me tell him respectfully that not enough people know of the scheme and not enough people are availing of the scheme and, therefore, that is a systems failure and a failure of Government. It could meaningfully help people if it was presented and marketed to them in the right way.

Let us bear in mind that figure of €1.8 million as one of the supports the Minister talks about. Centrica plc, the British company that owns Bord Gáis Energy in Ireland, said it expects its adjusted earnings for its financial year in the 12 months to the end of June 2023 to triple to almost €1.8 billion. I have pointed out the meagre €1.8 million paid out, yet Centrica is earning €1.8 billion. Record European gas prices during the summer ensured revenues by Vermilion Energy from the Corrib gasfield for the first nine months of 2022 more than doubled to €189.9 million. Corrib gas helped Vermilion to total revenues for the first nine months of 2022 of $2.63 billion, up from $1.3 billion for the same period in 2021.

Let me speak briefly about the ESB. As I said, we have had briefings from the ESB in regard to this concept of hedging, but hedging does nothing for the household that is struggling to pay its bills at the moment. Profits at the ESB soared in the six months to the end of June 2022 amid surging energy prices. Earnings, including a one-off gain from what it called “exceptional volatility” in global commodity markets, jumped to €390.3 million from €128.4 million in 2021. If we accept the fact Electric Ireland decided in 2022 to forgo profits in its residential business by giving the €50 credit to each of its 1.1 million residential customers, we would have to say that was arguably a very small gesture on the part of the provider, and I am not sure how meaningful it was. If we look at the bills we in this House have all seen, it was meaningless. However, it could be more meaningful and I hope the ESB will look at that. We know it is giving its business customers a decrease at a time when it says it cannot throw profits from one entity into another, but this begs the question of why the same savings could not be passed on to residential customers. It is another question that has to be answered.

The bottom line for us in supporting this motion is that while there is an acknowledgement of what the Government has done in regard to things like expanding the fuel allowance, which every Opposition party called for, there is more that could be done in regard to the supplementary welfare allowance scheme to ensure more working families have access to those supports that are housed within the Department of Social Protection. However, that has to be done on the basis there is a change of the criteria to ensure more working families, in particular, can come into that scheme and the Government ensures people know about it.

I am an old-school politician. I spend a lot of my time filling in medical card application forms, disability allowance forms and supplementary welfare allowance forms. I am old school in that sense, but it keeps me honest and keeps me close to the people. I am not sure I could say the same about this Government because I am not sure that, of late, very many of them have had that connection with real people in regard to how they are struggling in their everyday lives. If the Minister, Deputy Ryan, could speak to his counterpart to ensure more funding flowed into the supplementary welfare allowance scheme so it was made available to working families on fixed incomes, that would be a meaningful gesture.

On energy independence, I still cannot understand why the Government is not taking more of a risk and being more adventurous about ensuring more marine area consents are issued, for example, so people can start to map our south-west coast and not only rely on what is going to happen on fixed platforms for wind on the east coast. More risk should be taken by the Government to ensure we can set up the platforms to deliver the wind, bring the energy ashore and create energy independence. I worry about the conservative, cautious and risk-averse nature of this Government in respect of the possibility and potential for offshore wind energy on floating platforms to be brought ashore. Be more adventurous, take those risks and let it happen.

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