Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

On Saturday, 7 October, a few days before the budget is announced, the Cost of Living Coalition will hold a national demonstration. Assembling at Parnell Square at 1 p.m., trade unionists, student unions, pensioners' groups, housing groups, anti-poverty activists and many more will march to the Dáil to demand urgent action to deal with the crushing impact of the cost-of-living, housing and homelessness crises. People will join the demonstration for many reasons. I urge anybody who is affected by or angry about the cost-of-living and housing crises to do so. People will be there because of homelessness, unaffordable rents, unaffordable childcare, mortgage interest hikes, grocery price hikes and much more.

I will concentrate today on one aspect of the cost-of-living crisis, namely, the shocking figures produced this week by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, which show that an incredible 11% of electricity customers, or 256,000 people, are now in arrears. That number is up by 72,000 since January this year. Equally incredible is that 168,000 gas customers are now in arrears, which is an increase of 24,000 since the beginning of the year. One in five gas customers is in arrears. The figures also show that disconnections have jumped dramatically since the lifting of the moratorium on disconnections. In April, only 15 electricity customers, although that is too many, were cut off. The number had gone up to 132 by May and to 145 by June. After 21 gas customers were cut off in April, the number jumped to 132 and then jumped again, in June, to 145. This is happening during the summer months, not the winter months into which we are facing.

The Tánaiste may say in his response that some of the energy companies have started to reduce their prices, but the price reductions in gas and electricity are a drop in the ocean compared with what has happened. In the past two years, electricity prices have more than doubled - a more than 100% increase - to the approximately €2,000 a year people are now paying. According to the household energy price index, people in this country are paying 80% more than the EU average for electricity and gas. They are paying over €900 a year more than the average across the rest of Europe. All of this is happening while we have seen a profits bonanza at the ESB and the gas companies, with their profits jumping to absolutely staggering levels.

Will the Tánaiste immediately reintroduce the moratorium on disconnections as we head into the winter months? Second, will he introduce price caps on energy in order that people pay energy costs that are least down to the level of the rest of Europe, rather than double the prices in the rest of Europe, as they currently are?

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