Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

In March, the Labour Party supported a similar motion to this. In the continued absence of the long-promised windfall tax on energy companies or, indeed, any fundamental attempt by the Government to tackle escalating home energy bills in a real way, we are inclined to support the motion and the sentiments contained therein.

Wholesale prices for gas and oil are falling while energy bills at home keep rising. This is absolutely perverse. The energy companies can blame the mechanics of the market all they want but it is clear they are a hell of a lot slower to pass on cuts in their costs to Irish householders than they were to hike up the prices and rake in the record profits that have resulted. As the motion lays out, the average cost of gas and electricity bills has doubled over the past year for domestic customers and our citizens now pay the highest price for electricity anywhere in Europe according to the European household energy price index. While the bills have doubled in size the number of people in the country in fuel poverty has also doubled over the same period. The Government is simply failing to join the dots, notwithstanding the remarks made by the Minister earlier in reprising all of the various measures introduced by the Government over the past 18 months.

Older people on limited incomes and people relying on social welfare to top up their incomes stare in horror at the electricity and gas bills coming through the letterbox. They have no idea how to pay them. As it is clear the industry is incapable of regulating itself and acting fairly towards its customers, the Government must intervene. I say this because in this country there is very little confidence in the regulator. It also seems that the regulator, in this regard the CRU, acts like a nodding dog. Generally speaking, in most cases it supports the interests of the industry itself. It pains me to say this as somebody who believes in markets but I am also somebody who believes in strong State regulation of markets. All of the evidence in recent years shows the CRU is certainly not on the side of the consumer all the time and ought to be more consumer focused.

The motion calls on the Government to provide financial relief and certainty to households by reducing electricity prices to the level they were at before Putin began to wage his illegal war in Ukraine. The energy companies, as practically every speaker this evening has said, have made extraordinary profits since that time. They can easily afford this simple measure until the market returns to some kind of what I might describe as sanity. It is clear the companies will be slow to return their prices to a sensible level without clear intervention from the State. Electric Ireland, for example, seems to think that businesses are more deserving of an energy cut than struggling householders. My party has called for those same favourable business terms to be passed on to domestic customers.

A report earlier this year by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, "Warm, Safe, Connected?", indicated that 377,000 people live in homes they were unable to adequately heat last year. This compares with 166,000 people in 2021. This is in what is observably a rich country. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul knows that domestic energy costs have been pushed to unprecedented heights over the past two years. The consumer price index for December 2022 revealed annual income increases of 86.5% for gas bills and 62.7% for electricity bills. The figures in the report of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are truly shocking. They tally with my experience of representing my constituents in Louth and east Meath.

Rising energy bills have doubled the number of homes in energy poverty at a time when energy prices are falling. This is what is perverse. This is why this is completely intolerable. It is immoral and unethical and it simply cannot be stood over. We have a real crisis on our hands and we cannot afford to stand by and let the market sort it out, as is our tendency in this country. As my party leader, Deputy Bacik asked, is appealing to energy companies to cut their prices really the best the Government can do? In recent months I have been raising ad nauseamissues relating to price gouging at the supermarket tills and the hyperprofits being recorded by supermarkets. It is the same with electricity companies. What is it with this country that we cannot seem to fairly regulate markets and ensure that our regulators are consumer focused in the way they ought to be? What is it about the Government that Ministers feel that all they can do is commentate on a situation that is putting householders around the country to the pins of their collars?

The second demand the motion makes is for the introduction of an energy windfall tax without further delay. I have spoken in the House on many occasions about this tax and about the requirement to do this quickly. I cannot understand the delay in developing legislation, bringing it to the House and imposing the type of regime that we ought to impose on the hyperprofits of energy companies and the solidarity tax on fossil fuel companies. We know the case and the Minister has outlined it himself. He understands why this needs to happen. I simply cannot understand why we are lagging behind other European Union colleagues.

The Labour Party is also happy to support references in the motion to increasing the powers of the CRU, for example, to look at the fairness of standing charges and giving the CRU a function with regard to the standing charge regime and the hedging practices of energy companies, and a wider function in investigating the market where suspicions of price gouging are in evidence.

Our one difficulty with the motion is the call for the reversal of the latest increases in the carbon tax. We believe in the concept that the polluter pays and, therefore, we are broadly in favour of the principle and application of carbon taxes. In the extraordinary circumstances facing households watching giant energy bills dropping through the letterbox, we would prefer a slightly different approach. I accept that a reduction in carbon tax is presented by Sinn Féin as a means to assist householders who are in difficulty at present.

I accept and understand that, but I know as well that over the recent past, Sinn Féin has had an issue more generally with carbon tax. The Labour Party supports the principle of carbon tax but we have a difference of opinion on how it might be applied. We have to accept and understand that the planet is burning and we have limited time to save our planet. It is a fundamental, existential question. The fair application of carbon taxes is important because we have to have a system whereby taxes are introduced on fossil fuels, once they are applied correctly and fairly, which is the key. Carbon taxes and a fiscal regime for fossil fuels are critical in arming us with the weapons we need to address the climate crisis.

In accepting that the Sinn Féin approach is, at this point in time, fundamentally to do with assisting householders, we would say that a different and fairer approach could be taken. We said earlier this year, for example, that the State should consider temporarily nationalising the Corrib gas field and capping the price of wholesale gas instead of reversing carbon taxes. We said as well that we would introduce a €400 refundable carbon credit for households that would, by definition, be targeted at working people.

We do, however, support the broad thrust of the motion, and it is something we are happy to support. We will work with the Minister on fine-tuning the windfall tax legislation once it is produced, although I cannot for the life of me understand what the delay is. Other colleagues have listed many of the EU states that implemented the windfall tax in all its different forms and solidarity taxes on fossil fuel companies late last year, pretty much as soon as the European Council decision enabled them to do so. I cannot understand what the delay is. We will work with the Minister on that because it needs to be done urgently. In our view, the energy companies simply have had it all their own way for far too long. It should not be up to the customer to almost exclusively bear the cost of this crisis situation that we are in at the moment. This has to change and this has to change now. We are happy to support the motion.

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