Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion. I do not know if it is just me, but this feels like Groundhog Day. Every few weeks, we are talking about energy prices, energy markets and energy failures in this Chamber, and it has been going on for a number of years. The reason we are still talking about it, and the reason we will still be talking about it in six months, is what we are actually facing is a market that is running wild, a market that is no longer fit for purpose. The Minister spoke earlier about how international factors are pushing up the prices, which they absolutely are, but we need an energy market that can deal with that, and we need a regulator that can regulate and deal with it as well, and ensure that customers and consumers are protected. We do not have that at the moment. There is a fundamental need for market reform. In light of the changing energy systems, we are moving into a very different energy generation make-up and there is a need for fundamental reform of our markets.

We also need to examine the role of the CRU and its place in this. The Minister said the CRU has announced consumer protection measures. When we look at what the protection measures are, they are essentially ways to help consumers pay back the bills they have racked up because the energy companies have hiked up prices. In many instances, that is what it is. They are payment plans that say, “We will not disconnect you now because it is winter time but, come summer, you will be in a position where you will be disconnected if you do not pay back the money you owe us.”

What we have is a system and a market that is not serving our people but one where people are serving it. What I have seen over the past couple of years is the Government running around trying to prop this up. When there were issues with price hikes, the Government outlined that €4 billion has been spent. That money has gone directly to energy companies because the prices were too high and people could not afford it. Therefore, the market has the Government and taxpayers’ money working for it, and that is not where we need to be.

The CRU needs more power, it needs teeth and it needs to be able to protect people. As the Sinn Féin motion outlines, it needs to be able to cover things like standing charges. We need a better understanding of the hedging that companies have used. While I understand that hedging has an 18-month timeframe, it is incredible how quickly the prices went up when they also would have hedged at that point at a particular price, yet they still managed to work those price hikes in there. However, we are not seeing them fall in an equivalent fashion so there needs to be transparency around the hedging process. I absolutely agree that this needs to be with the CRU.

From a resource perspective, I also think the CRU needs additional supports, given it has been tasked with many new roles. When we are talking about all of the wind farms, the renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, auction and oversight of the grid, there is a lot of new work that it has been tasked with, so it is important it has the resources to deal with it.

While we are talking about prices, and I have spoken many times about the impact this is having on individuals and homes and the difficulties it is causing people, I would like to focus a bit more on businesses. I understand the Government has given support to businesses but it is not helping anymore, and that is the reality. I spoke recently to a restaurant-café business in Wicklow. The owner said her average monthly bill for electricity in 2021 was €2,000, in 2022 that increased to €4,000, and in February of this year, because she is now out of contract, it increased to €8,900. Such businesses will not survive these price increases. They recognise and welcome the supports the Government gave them but they are making the point that it is no longer enough. What is going to happen is that they will go out of business.

The entire hospitality sector has had a number of years where considerable Government supports were given to them through the pandemic. They managed to keep their heads afloat during the pandemic and managed to keep going. They got out of the pandemic and got back on their feet and, now, they are being hit with energy costs. It is just too much for them to take. Unfortunately, two very popular cafés in Wicklow – MochaJoes in Rathdrum and Little Betty’s in Avoca - have closed in the past couple of weeks. They were small cafés but they were the core of the community and incredibly popular. They did not just serve coffee; they served the community, and now they are gone. We are starting to see that these small businesses can no longer take the pressure.

Interestingly, this business owner told me that, apparently, energy providers will require a security deposit of between €5,000 and €7,000 if someone wants to take a new contract in the hospitality sector. I do not know if the Minister has heard this and I will look into it further, but that is huge money for small businesses to cover.

We need to see market reforms but we also need to see resilience being built into the system. The Minister mentioned the retrofitting that has happened. I support that and think we need to see more of it. I reiterate the potential that is there for solar supports. The Government needs to make a huge intervention in providing solar panels for individual homes and businesses. Some 1 million homes in this country are eligible for solar. If they had solar panels, it would reduce their energy costs by 40% a year. Can we imagine if some of that €4 billion that was given as cash handouts had been invested in those homes?

It would mean that their energy costs would be reduced this year, next year and the year after. That is the long-term, sustainable approach that is required. Once the Government gave the cash hand-out - and I understand that people really needed that money - it was gone and that cash is now in the pockets of energy companies. We need a long-term strategy from the Government. We need to make householders resilient in the face of international or global shocks. We need them to generate their own energy and that is only possible if there is an at-scale approach and a large intervention by the Government in providing solar panels and rolling them out across each estate. The Government should do it on an estate-by-estate basis because that is the most efficient and cost-effective way to do it. The Government could go to Europe and buy solar panels in bulk and get them rolled out. It would be a lot quicker to do than relying on retrofitting and it would take a fraction of the construction staff to do it. It would yield a much quicker bang for our buck and I urge the Minister to consider doing that.

I welcome the VAT reduction, which was an important initiative. It was good to see the Government following the direction of the EU in that regard but a lot more needs to be done. We must do this now, with the six months around the summer giving us a little bit of breathing space. We must use this time wisely so that households can get through the winter without the Government having to pay their energy bills because that is not a good use of taxpayers' money. It is also not a good way to deal with our emissions. The thing about solar is that it will deal with the energy costs, with our emissions and it will also help our grid. There are three wins for the same money. That is the kind of focus on innovation that we need. We need a real rooftop revolution that actually puts power back into people's hands.

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