Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)

The lights are on but for far too long no one seems to be at home when it comes to the factors that have made Irish households absolute outliers in European terms regarding the cost of energy. The State is generating hundreds of millions of euro through a ridiculous carbon tax that I opposed and is damning people to energy poverty only to then redirect the tax revenue back to them through the welfare system. That is like some Alice-in-Wonderland version of the circular economy.

It is not just the cost of energy, which is rocketing, that this is having an impact on; it is also one of the core contributors to the rising cost of food. Just recently, the CSO released figures from Eurostat that put Ireland’s food price inflation at three times the headline rate, with food prices up 5%. This was a 20-month high. Economist Oliver Brown has calculated the cost of food shopping and has come to the conclusion that prices have increased by 36% in the past four years. This is now a full-blown, interconnected crisis that the Government must respond to with unrelenting determination, especially regarding energy costs, which, we know, are driving many of the increases.

We need to put aside the stupidity of efforts such as banning turf and criminalising those cutting turf in the midlands or in bogs in Galway. That needs to stop. Families have always used turf for heat and energy. Imagine persisting with this in the middle of a prolonged crisis, including a prolonged cost-of-energy crisis. It simply beggars belief.

Households cannot afford their energy bills. Businesses, farmers and SMEs are being pushed to the brink because of them, and all the while we still have ridiculous arguments from some quarters about the bogeyman of liquefied natural gas resources, despite the energy independence that potentially exists right here on our doorstep. The Government needs to cop itself on and detach itself and Irish households from the absurd ideological straitjacket. We cannot afford the ongoing trends of Ireland’s electricity price being among the highest in Europe and of our gas price being about the fifth most expensive. We cannot afford to have businesses closing, and we certainly cannot afford to have our most vulnerable in society living in cold conditions. So many people come to my office in a distressed state. Since the energy credits are no longer available, they are concerned about how they are going to pay their bills this year.

I felt that giving the energy credits was letting the energy companies off the hook. Why can the electricity companies not be brought before an Oireachtas committee? They are profiteering while people are living in cold conditions. It makes no sense. The Government needs to do the right thing, step up to the mark, serve the people and stop serving the big corporate interests of this country.

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