Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

Where did it all go wrong? We built up a publicly owned electricity service that was the pride of our people. We built up electrification when we were a poor country and we had some of the cheapest electricity in Europe. Thanks to the policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, that all now lies in ruins. Those parties embraced the privatisation agenda from Europe with glee. They sold the family jewels and today we have the most expensive electricity in all of Europe. That happened not by accident but by design.

When it came to wind energy, it was all about the profits of the few, the insiders. Communities saw turbines popping up around them. These turbines should ensure electricity is cheaper but I will tell the Minister of State a story. In recent weeks, I went to a hill above my home town. There are over 20 turbines on that hill; half of them are switched off during the day because we do not have the electricity infrastructure to avail of wind energy. What was it about? It was about making profits for the people who developed those wind farms, not about reducing costs for our people. The potential of wind energy is huge. If Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had worked in partnership with communities and ensured ownership stayed as much as possible within communities, we would be benefitting hugely from that today. Those are the facts. Again and again, those parties' intentional policies have put huge profits in the pockets of the few and caused huge difficulties for the rest of us.

Our homeowners and small businesses are paying for what data centres should be fairly contributing towards. The policy approach is always about who is inside the tent and has the resources to influence policy, and we pay the price. I say again we had publicly owned electricity infrastructure which was our pride as a people. It was given away, put in the hands of the wealthy few and this is where we are today. None of this is by accident. It is on the Government to resolve this. It must bring in electricity credits in the budget and, once and for all, get a grip on the energy companies and the handfuls of people making huge profits at the expense of our people and leaving 300,000 families unable to pay their bills. A very high percentage of those have now gone over nine months without being able to pay their bills. That is the outworking of failed policies. The Government needs to own them, take responsibility and sort it out.

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