Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

Cuirfeadh na figiúirí ar fhoilsigh an rialálaí inné maidir le riaráistí fuinnimh imní an domhain ar dhuine ar bith. Tá rabhadh mór dearg ag splancáil do theaghlaigh atá ag streachailt cheana féin leis an mhéid atá in ann dóibh don gheimhreadh. Tá sé seo go léir ag tarlú toisc nach bhfuil faic déanta ag an Rialtas le dul i ngleic leis an sáinn nó chun smacht a chur ar phraghasanna. Tar éis dó gan rud ar bith a dhéanamh fad is a bhí na billí ag dul in airde i gcónaí, bhain sé an creidmheas fuinnimh a thacaigh le daoine teacht slán tríd an gheimhreadh seo caite.

The energy arrears figures published yesterday by the regulator are nothing short of alarming - a flashing red light for what households are already enduring and what lies ahead this winter. They tell us that over 300,000 households are behind on their electricity bills and gas bills tell the same bleak story. A total of 180,000 households are now in arrears with their gas. This means that over one in four households in this State cannot pay their gas bills. This does not even include all the households that are just managing to keep up. These are not just numbers. They are cold living rooms where families sit wrapped in coats because they cannot risk switching on the heat. They are older people rationing warmth terrified of opening their next bill. They are parents hiding final notices hoping their next pay packet will stretch far enough to keep the lights on.

All of this is happening because the Government has done nothing to tackle the rip off and get prices under control. What has been its response to rising bills? It pulled the energy credits that helped people survive last winter. Instead of relief, households are hit once again with Energia, SSE Airtricity, Pinergy, Bord Gáis Energy and Flogas all imposing fresh price hikes pushing 1 million homes into an even more impossible situation than the one they are currently in. What makes this even more galling is that energy companies are refusing to pass on the full reductions in wholesale costs. Families are being squeezed from every direction - by suppliers, by inflation and by the Government's decisions. Let us be clear. These arrears figures only go up to July. That was before we had the cold weather we now have, before the last round of price hikes and before people even turned on their heating so God only knows what the numbers are going to look like this Christmas if this crisis continues.

This Government cannot plead ignorance. It refuses to take on the energy companies; it refuses to empower the regulator; it refuses to reform hedging prices; it refuses to deal with a pricing system, the PSO and the network charges; and it refuses to stop more and more data centres driving up costs. It will not act. It will not intervene for customers so here we are with the worst period of energy arrears since records began in this State. I will ask the Tánaiste plainly because he cannot deny the fact that we have never seen so many people who cannot meet their basic bills of electricity and gas. How can he justify cutting energy credits when bills are higher now than they were this time last year and are rising even more? How can he justify taking away those energy credits people were dependent on when 300,000 households are behind on their electricity bills, over one in four households cannot pay their gas bills and arrears are rising faster than records have ever shown? Does the Tánaiste acknowledge that the number of families in energy arrears is increasing under his watch and that unless the Government intervenes, we will see a serious winter of discontent for so many families?

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