Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)

I thank Sinn Féin for bringing the motion forward. It is absolutely essential that we keep the focus on the cost-of-living crisis. It is incredible, when we think about it, that we are calling it the cost-of-living crisis. It is too expensive to get the basic things that are required to live your life. It is truly shocking the extent to which profits are being made by companies, by grocery stores, by food outlets, by gas and electricity companies, and by our own State company, the ESB. Profit gouging is happening in so many areas. Who is paying for it? It is ordinary households. This is why we have seen child poverty rates double when we have never been as wealthy. There have never been such levels of economic growth. There is something fundamentally wrong in the way in which our economy and society is operating.

We are seeing already that it is an early winter. People feel it. Temperatures are dropping already and many people are already facing the choice between eating or turning on their heating. In many situations in families it is parents who are deciding to forgo their own meals. The figures from Barnardo's have shown this.

Parents in this country are forgoing eating a meal so their children can have a meal. This is 2025; it is not 1905. What is going on here? If we look, for example, at SSE Airtricity customers, from 20 October a typical customer's annual bill will increase by about €150. This is a massive increase for families who are facing back-to-school costs, massive food inflation and skyrocketing rents. Where does it end? One in five children are at risk of poverty after their families pay the housing costs, be it rent or a mortgage. This will be compounded. We will see the number of children in poverty increase when these energy costs are added in. It is not just inflation and we should call it out for what it is. It is greedflation. We should name it and the Government itself should not be afraid to name it. It is greedflation. Companies are making massive profits off the backs of people being pushed into poverty and not being able to afford the basic cost of living.

We know that incomes cannot keep pace with this. The energy poverty crisis that is ongoing is going to continue for people. Energia generated a profit after tax of €135 million in 2024. Bord Gáis Energy also made hundreds of millions of euro in profit in 2024 and 2025. Who is seeing the benefits of these profits? It is not the families who are scraping by and who are unsure whether they can continue to do so. We have allowed a society and culture to develop where families and children go cold and hungry in order that the profits of big companies are sated and fulfilled. I ask the question again. This is 2025 in Ireland, in an economy that is supposed to be a social-market economy and a balanced economy that is about feeding, supporting and nurturing a society, not just profit at all costs, yet it feels we are back in the laissez-faireearly Dickensian capitalist days where people go hungry while other people amass wealth and money.

The social contract has been broken, and for what? For these companies to make more profits. The Government has to start prioritising the families who are stretched. There are two Irelands, and indeed there are many Irelands today. There is a small number who are doing okay but there is a majority that, at some level, is struggling in one way or another to cover the basic costs of living. Luxuries used to be a holiday, nice clothes, a meal out - things people saw as treating themselves. Today, a luxury and a treat, for some people, is actually turning the heat on. This is outrageous in a country that is one of the wealthiest in the world. The Government promised an energy poverty action plan. It has not been implemented and it is very clear that the Government's priority is not implementing measures that will actually alleviate this real poverty. Instead, it is too busy and unwilling to challenge the massive greedflation we are seeing.

See this speech in context