Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

Tá oibrithe agus teaghlaigh á lomadh ag praghsanna leictreachais atá ródhaor. Tá na praghsanna is airde againn san Aontas Eorpach. Níl a dhath feicthe againn ón Rialtas. Níl sé ag gníomhú ar chor ar bith le dul i ngleic leis na rudaí is cúis leis seo. Anois agus an méid is mó tithe riamh ar chúl lena gcuid billí fuinnimh, tá an Rialtas ag baint tacaíochtaí uathu. Impím ar an Rialtas an rud ceart a dhéanamh agus na creidmheasanna fuinnimh a thabhairt chun tosaigh sa bhuiséad i mbliana seo agus an deis seo a thapú chun na leasuithe molta, atá curtha chun tosaigh ag Sinn Féin, a chur i bhfeidhm.

Workers and families are being absolutely fleeced when it comes to the rip-off electricity prices. We have got the highest electricity prices in the European Union. Despite that, the Government has done nothing - not one thing - to address the underlying causes. This inaction is a betrayal of people who are struggling to pay their bills. Three quarters of a million people are to be hit with double-digit electricity increases in the next number of weeks, starting the day after the budget. Arís is arís eile, Sinn Féin has given the Government solutions, such as power for the energy regulator to hold energy companies to account, oversight of hedging practices to protect against price gouging and profiteering, the regulation of standing charges and making the PSO levy and network charges fair. These could all make a meaningful difference to how much people have to pay, but the Government has chosen to do nothing. The strategy has been to just wait it out and hope the problem goes away. While this Government sits on its hands, more and more people are falling behind on their bills.

What do we have today? We have a record number of households that cannot pay their electricity bills. More than 300,000 households across this State cannot pay their electricity bills. That is before these companies jack up the prices and the Government withdraws the energy credits they are relying on. It does not even scratch the surface of how many people are just managing to keep up. That is why the regulator is warning that those numbers are going to spike this winter. We have record numbers and the regulator is telling the Government that it is going to get even worse this winter if the Government does not change course. People are facing into this winter seeing report after report of prices being increased, dreading getting that next bill through the door.

Government policy has made things actively worse for them. The Government rolled out the red carpet for data centres. Government officials admitted that these centres are driving up prices, making bills more expensive for workers and families. On top of that, we have carbon tax hikes on gas and home heating oil, which is the first of five increases planned by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents over the coming years.

There are people in my constituency who are facing into another winter with defective concrete blocks because the Government refused to put in place a fit-for-purpose scheme.

Now there are people in my constituency who have cracks in their houses. You can see through the cracks and put your hand through the cracks. They are trying to keep their homes warm and spending a fortune, and the Government's answer is to jack up the cost of gas and home heating oil and to take away the energy credits. Energy credits were never the solution. They are one-off measures that are supposed to buy time but the Government did not use that time. It did not make any meaningful reforms and is now pulling the only supports that are there when people need them most. We have a record number of people behind in their bills, while 750,000 households will in the coming weeks get double-digit increases and in the same two weeks the Government will withdraw the supports that are required.

People are under immense pressure. Government Members need to get their heads out of the sand. They need to stop this nonsense of a do-nothing Government. After 250 days we still have no action from this Government to get prices under control or to put manners on in relation to the price-gouging and the extortionate prices electricity companies are charging. It is time for the Government to do the right thing and make sure the energy credits Sinn Féin is calling for - €450 to be paid to households this winter - are central to the budget. If it does not, it will guarantee that more and more households - more than the current 300,000 - will not be able to pay their electricity bills this winter.

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