Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)

Sometimes we need to be really honest with ourselves. At this moment in time, we know one in five children is living in poverty, 300,000 households are in debt on their electricity bills and nearly 200,000 others are in debt on their gas bills. We need to look at that and make decisions that impact people's lives and help them. We are bringing forward this constructive motion to try to assist in that sense.

The Government countermotion mentions retrofitting. The Minister of State will know well that retrofitting is difficult for many people to access. I am dealing with a man in his 80s who has been waiting nine months to get his house retrofitted. He lives on his own and every day he has to put down a fire and put the coal on the fire. It is incredibly difficult for him, so difficult that he had to contact my office to see if there was any way to get a retrofit done more quickly.

There are countless people with serious issues when it comes to their roofs. Tá fadhbanna le díonta ar fud Conamara, áit nach bhfuil siad in ann retrofitting a fháil i gcomhar an dín sin. Níl an cúnamh ann. Yet their bills increase and many of these people are still waiting to get money back from their electricity providers, having been forced to pay electricity bills during Storm Éowyn when they literally did not have electricity for weeks. These are the big issues facing people and they will only cause more debt as people head into winter. It is a real concern and it is high time the Government took a look at this and ensured a fair distribution of network costs so we can invest for people like those who have lost electricity for weeks on end across Connemara. After every storm that blows a little bit of wind, they lose their electricity because there is not investment in basic infrastructure to ensure they do not lose it again and again for weeks on end.

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