Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)

I am glad to get the chance to talk about this serious and, for some people, emotive matter here this evening.

I welcome the investment by Government in the ESB. It surely needs to improve when we see communities left without electricity for days and weeks in places such as Cordal, Brosna, Gneeveguilla, Glencar and Knocknagoshel earlier in the year because of a storm. I have to mention one aspect of that operation. I want to thank all the workers that put their lives in danger trying to restore the lines, day and night, to get the power going. I have to commend them very highly. ESB management, who were overseeing this and ensuring the workers were out there, refused to make drones available to them to find the outages in dense forestry and terrain that was hardly traversable. If they had the facility of having a drone to go out, check the line and see where it was broken down, it would have saved hours, days and weeks of time for those poor men working hard on the ground trying to rectify the situation. I want the Minister of State to ask why that did not happen in Kerry and why drones were not made available to the crews on the ground. That is one of the questions.

The other problem I have is that we hear this massive sum being invested in the ESB, but what are we doing for our consumers that have to pay so much? I see here a list. Energia imposed a 12.1% increase from 9 October last. Bord Gáis raised its electricity unit rates by 13.5% and its standing charges by 12%. SSE Airtricity prices rose 9.5% and those of Flogas 7%. Why is there such a difference in the first place? Flogas's increase is just half what they others are. There is no law or order, or control, at all here. Pinergy had an increase of 9.83%. Do we have a regulator? Where is he? Did he ever open his mouth? Is he asleep all the time? What is happening the regulator or is he there at all? That is what I am asking. This is the only sector where companies seem to get what increases they want and the poor consumers have to suffer these massive charges.

Many people are cajoled and forced into this situation that they have to use so much electricity. They were told to do this. The building energy rating, BER, rating was forced upon thousands of people that have built new houses by the banks and other lending institutions. They have to have the lowest BER rating and to do that means they cannot have a chimney with an open fireplace or whatever form of heating they desire. This is why they have been forced into electricity only. The Government then will find that when the power goes out, there is no one to help them. Two council houses that I pass every morning when I leave Kilgarvan have been unoccupied for over a year. There was people living in them up until then. The reason is they were selected for complete retrofitting at a cost of over €100,000. There was nothing wrong with the houses only to paint them up and do a few jobs to them, not to take off the roofs and take out the chimneys which is what is happening. They are gone at 18 occupied houses over in Rathmore now, trying to force people into taking out their little stoves and fireplaces. I had an elderly lady bawling crying on the phone to ask Kerry County Council not to take out her little stove. That is what is happening. There are vacant houses around the place that are not being got ready for reuse or to leave other tenants into them, and they have no place to live at the present time.

Many farmers and others are generating electricity themselves. They were encouraged to produce enough that they could sell it and now we find the grid is only going the one way, bringing electricity to them. The infrastructure is not there to sell the electricity to the ESB. The ESB, in some cases, will only take one third of what they can produce. There is something wrong here and I ask the Minister of State to look at that. It is very serious.

Hundreds of people have been on to me that their power is being turned off and that they cannot pay the bills.

This is what they find when they have these heat pumps that are running all the year round. They were able to carry on themselves and get a few bags of turf or a bag of coal. We appreciate the fuel allowance, but it is not as going as far as people need it to go with these exorbitant electricity bills.

I was amazed, when it was made known at the agricultural committee meeting last week, that some of these people who are building commercial anaerobic digesters can get a grant of up to €5 million from the State. Imagine that. What this is about is meeting our 2030 targets for generation of energy. This is being paid for by taxpayers. It is everything and anything just to meet our targets, regardless of what it will cost. Can you imagine what a €5 million grant would do for people who are trying to pay the electricity costs they have? In the first place, I think I was the only one who voted against the timing for the 2030 emissions target deadline. I was the only one in Dáil Éireann. Every other man, woman, party, Independent and individual voted for 2030. I did not. I know a lot of people will get hurt and squeezed in between.

I mentioned retrofitting new and occupied houses against the wishes of tenants. I go back to the way people are being forced and encouraged to use electricity. When we realise that the power can go out at any time, we hope that the ESB and Ministers are ensuring that we will not have outages like we had before, when trees were left too close to wires. What has happened until now, whether it happens all the time or not, is when the ESB is told about trees rubbing off wires, it is only allowed to cut them back a metre from the lines. That is not good enough. That is not adequate because tall trees fall the length of themselves onto the wires. I ask for that to be reviewed to ensure no tree is left standing. They should not be left standing along any road either because we see people in cars being killed. These trees are overshadowing wires and roads. That should not be happening.

I again go back to the exorbitant costs and the regulation, which is not there. It is immaterial. While we support the investment, I do not support what is happening to customers. We do not have a regulator. He is not doing his job. It is the Ministers' duty; this is their time in position. They are the Ministers of today. They should ensure the energy regulator gets out and does his job, and gives clarification and transparency to what is happening. Are the energy companies entitled to these increases or are they not? I feel they are not.

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