Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)

I did not get a chance earlier to pay tribute to and congratulate Catherine Connolly. I also pay tribute to Sr. Stan who was a Listowel woman and a Kerry woman. In a week when we saw the outrageous attack on the house in Drogheda and convictions for racially motivated murders, I would love to know what she would have thought about the way the country is going. I pay tribute to her for all of her work with immigrants and the homeless over the years.

Due to decades of underinvestment, bad planning and mismanagement by successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments, Ireland's energy system is not fit for purpose. Alongside rip-off costs and a deeply regressive approach to financing, our electricity grid is another example in a long line of Government failures. Due to paralysis, it is plagued by critical infrastructure deficits - we all saw this in the storms of last winter - that not only result in hundreds of millions of euro in wasted renewable energy every year, driving up the cost of energy, but have already stopped people moving into their own homes. The need for urgent action and significant investment in our grid is clear. As the Minister of State said, we need to future-proof it for generations to come, but in doing so it must be fair and just to the generations to come.

While it is essential that we take a determined and ambitious approach, it is equally critical that the Government does not repeat past mistakes. The choices must shape Ireland's energy future in a way that delivers first for ordinary people and not for corporate interests. We all saw that when we had total control and State ownership of our energy markets, we had some of the lowest prices in Europe. Now, we have some of the highest. The Government must ensure there is no return to the snail's pace, stop-start approach of successive Governments. It must be subject to sufficient scrutiny and safeguards so that the public good is prioritised rather than treated as collateral damage. This is why the legislation is so important.

The Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Bill 2025 legislates to allow for the €1.5 billion Exchequer investment in the ESB and furthermore to allow the ESB Group to increase its debt ceiling to €17 billion. It is important and necessary but how the money is spent really matters. The Bill mirrors the same strategic errors of previous Governments in potentially repeating our mistakes. For example, just like the summer economic statement, the revised national development plan and budget 2026, it is not only devoid of detail on the infrastructure the investment will deliver, but there is also no guidance on what projects should be prioritised. That is important and I will get to it. There is no mechanism for Oireachtas oversight, accountability or independent audit. As a result, this important investment of taxpayers' money will be vulnerable to waste and exploitation. It could fail to deliver the critical infrastructure that we need now and into the future. Ramming this Bill through without addressing these shortcomings will not undo the decades of failures. We should be careful not to repeat them.

Let us look at the position we have today. Ireland is massively over-dependent on expensive imported fossil fuels leading to some of the highest energy prices in the EU. I do not think anyone will disagree with that. Ordinary workers and families are being ripped off because the energy bills they are charged here are, on average, €300 to €500 more than other countries. Unsurprisingly, the number of households in energy debt is at a record level having doubled in four short years. There are now 300,000 households that cannot afford to heat their homes or turn the lights on. The crisis will only deepen further following the impact of another round of energy price hikes combined with the cruel decision to withdraw and rip away the energy credits this winter.

The constraints on our grid do not just impact energy affordability. In fact, grid constraints are placing urgently needed housing under threat. We saw that 80 families were prevented from moving into their homes last summer due to the lack of an electricity connection. They remain locked out. Recently, at an Oireachtas committee hearing, the ESB itself warned that limited capacity was placing new housing at risk. Grid constraints also place our vast potential for renewables and energy independence in jeopardy. Ireland saved €1.2 billion last year but we lost nearly a further €500 million in wasted energy. Ireland's crippled grid acts as a barrier to a thriving economy and balanced regional development, not only with electricity connections but wastewater treatment systems as well. All of this means progress is at a standstill when the reality is we need to be going a lot faster.

Sinn Féin recognises the damage that has been caused by the failure to deliver on our grid and the results of that. Sinn Féin would mandate the planning, oversight and accountability that has been missing in the past, including a new responsibility for the ESB to provide a report on not just where the money has been spent, but where it will go in the future. This is the type of much-needed detail that has been missing, which is essential for credibility and certainty. To ensure this Government can no longer continue to treat energy affordability as an afterthought, our amendments will require the impact on consumer prices to be made clear. This will help to tackle the regressive nature of the current funding model because ordinary households should not continue to shoulder a disproportionate burden, while those who are causing energy surges, such as data centres, are left relatively off the hook. These reports should be laid before the Oireachtas initially within six months of the Act passing and then annually. We would also address the mismanagement of grid expansion to date. Successive Governments have rolled out the red carpet for data centres, while other essential infrastructure, such as housing, has been overlooked.

Sinn Féin is not the only one sounding the alarm bell on this. The energy regulator recently highlighted the fact that the ESB Networks substation at Castlebaggot, which was initially intended to support new housing, was handed over to data centres. Even the Government's own officials have issued stark warnings about a business-as-usual approach. In May, the Secretary General of the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment warned the Government that it must make a political choice between new homes and data centres. Similarly, officials in the Department of public expenditure also warned that Ireland's rapid growth in data centres is driving up household bills and gobbling up our energy capacity. All of the renewable energy increase that we will get will be taken by data centres. That is not right.

While increased investment is essential, it must deliver for ordinary workers and families. We hope our amendments will address those concerns ensuring that the ESB's investment is directed towards the right political choices of public good rather than the corporate balance system. This Bill is an opportunity to address the failings in our current system. We believe the amendments are required to ensure we do not fuel them.

I use this opportunity to call on the Government to address the deep unfairness in the cost, and to maintain and upgrade the grid. Data centres consume 22% of Ireland's energy demand, up from 5% in 2015.

EirGrid projects will rise to one third by 2034. A single data centre can use as much electricity as Kilkenny city. However, under the current model a disproportionate burden falls on ordinary households. We have repeatedly urged the Government to restructure network charges and correct this inequity. However, not only have these calls fallen on deaf ears, but the draft decision on price review, PR6, which the Minister of State mentioned in his speech, will only further ingrain this unfairness. Under the CRU's draft price review, households and SMEs will see their network charges increase while large data users like data centres will see reductions of up to 18%. It is not just unfair; it is scandalous. The very companies that have driven up demand have been asked to pay less and ordinary people to pay more. This is a political choice and we believe it is the wrong one.

I emphasise the very real crisis faced by ordinary workers and families when it comes to heating their homes this winter. Over 300,000 households are in debt and there has been another round of crippling energy price hikes but the supports to ordinary people have been ripped away. The Minister of State said that this Bill will not reduce energy bills and will have no influence on that, which is a pity. When the gap between Irish retail prices and wholesale prices is one of the biggest in the world, energy companies have serious questions to answer about price gouging. We have repeatedly provided the Government with measures that would hold the energy companies to account, but they have been ignored. We deserve much better than what the Government is willing to give. We certainly need more than an interim report that only diagnosed some of the problems but delivered no solutions.

The Government should provide €450 in energy credits on electricity bills now and not merely announce that it will publish an energy affordability plan in 2026 with action to follow God knows when. We want investment in the grid to be prioritised and delivered urgently. The stakes are high. This cannot be another blank cheque for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to repeat their failures. The Bill must look at and deliver for housing, for renewable energy, for affordability and for ordinary householders. It cannot be another missed opportunity. We will continue to fight for a fair energy system and one that works for people and not for profit.

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