Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleagues, Deputies Doherty and O'Rourke, for bringing forward this motion. I am conscious, as we are talking about this motion, that sub-zero temperatures are forecast for the next few days. Energy poverty and deprivation are piercing the homes and hearts of many people throughout this country. The Minister of State listed many things he said the Government has done, but it is giving people money to give to companies to make more and more profits, all the time.

I will tell the Minister of State how it is impacting people in a house I was in over the weekend. The woman is a lone parent who has a child with a disability. She apologised for having to do so but she carried in a big drum of oil to pour into the tank. I asked what she was doing. The woman told me it was the only way she could afford to heat the house and the drum used to be 35 l, but now it is 30 l. I was told she can manage it this way, that the oil would last her five days and she could not afford anything else. The woman said she is ashamed going to get the oil, but it is the only way she can make do. This is what the Minister of State and the Government do not get. The Minister of State sits here tonight - the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and other Government Members were here - still refusing to put a cap on electricity prices. Germany, France, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland and many other countries have done just that, but the Government refuses to do it. Are all those countries wrong?

The Minister of State needs to clear something up for us. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, is telling us a tax will be applied on generators from December 2022 to June 2023. On the very same day, the Taoiseach is telling us that it will be applied for December 2022. Which is it? The statements directly contradict each other. This Government does not have a clue about what it is doing with energy poverty and deprivation.

I refer to the electricity bills coming in. Electric Ireland is asking to be paid direct debit. Huge sums of money are taken out of people's accounts by direct debit and they are left in a situation where they cannot afford food for the rest of the year. Some €800 too much was taken from me by direct debit. Electric Ireland is saying one cannot cancel the direct debit, because one's credit rating will be impacted. The Minister of State should not talk to me about liquefied petroleum gas, LPG, and TBESS. People in rural Ireland and businesses know exactly what the Government thinks of them. We are still waiting for some kind of a grant to be given to those businesses, when they were excluded from TBESS.

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