Natasha Newsome Drennan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)

Numbers speak of a harsh reality facing so many Irish households. Ireland has the third most expensive electricity prices in the entire EU. This has been no gentle increase. It has been a shock to the system. In just five years, the average price has rocketed from €37/MWh to a staggering €114/MWh. This statistic is not abstract; it is the grim reality for tens of thousands of households struggling to pay their bills and for the 300,000 households currently in arrears. What was the Government's response? It was to scrap energy credits despite official advice. This was a cruel and harsh decision. Time and again, this Government turns its back, but to ignore official expert advice in doing so is utter neglect.

This Government has not only failed to bring prices down but has actively created the conditions that keep them high. Under its watch, our national grid has been dangerously neglected. We have not invested adequately in the capacity to harness the increase in renewable energy. Wind turbines are going up at such a rate that the grid cannot cope. Why? It is because the sole focus seems to be on hitting 2030 targets, with little to no regard for the real cost. The result of this failure is a scandal in plain sight. Since 2017, over €2.5 billion has been paid in curtailment payments. This is money handed to profit-driven projects to stop them producing energy. Who foots the bill? It is the public. The cost is added euro by euro onto every household's energy bill. What we are seeing is that the roll-out of solar and wind farms has begun to move beyond the green strategy. It has been designed to ensure high profits for profit investors and not for the benefit of customers or the public good.

While they cash in, this comes so very often at the expense of our rural communities, like my own in Carlow-Kilkenny. For almost 20 years, people there have waited for the updated planning guidelines for wind turbines. Successive Governments have kicked that can down the road. This delay has given developers free rein, while communities are left alone to navigate these massive landscape-altering developments that impact them for generations. It is time for the neglect to end. We need a national grid that does not waste renewable energy, policies that put people before profit and guidelines that protect our communities. Go raibh maith agat.

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