Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann: notes that:

— Irish energy prices are amongst the highest in Europe leading to an extra €500 on household bills and is a leading factor in Ireland's cost-of-living crisis;

— the number of households in arrears are at their highest level since records began with 300,000 households in arrears on their electricity bills and 185,000 households in arrears on their gas bills, while many more are just about able to keep up with their bills but are under real pressure;

— electricity prices are the highest in Europe and gas prices are the 5th highest;

— wholesale electricity prices have fallen 75 per cent since their 2022 peak yet retail prices remain 70 per cent above 2022 levels;

— household bills have fallen much slower in Ireland than other European Union (EU) countries following decreases in wholesale prices;

— many energy suppliers have recently increased energy prices despite the sector boasting substantial operating profits;

— the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has warned that without energy credits and Government action to lower people's bills there will be a spike in the number of people pushed into arrears;

— the Government is committed to five regressive carbon tax increases that will hike more cost on people that need to heat their homes with oil and gas; and

— energy poverty is at record levels with one in three struggling to access this basic necessity;

further notes that:

— the CRU does not have the mandate or powers to regulate the hedging strategies of energy companies or the standing charges they place on household bills;

— data centres consume around 25 per cent of Ireland's electricity, and this is expected to rise to 30 per cent by 2030 consuming the equivalent of over two million homes;

— according to senior Government officials' data centre energy demand is leading to higher energy bills for households and could jeopardise our ability to deliver new homes;

— network costs in Ireland are the highest in Europe with a disproportionate burden placed on households, especially lower income households;

— the draft decision for Price Review Six (PR6) proposes to increase network costs on households and to decrease them for data centres;

— the Public Service Obligation (PSO) levy which is used to fund the renewable transition is also structured and distributed regressively; and

— Ireland imports 80 per cent of the energy we consume leaving energy bills excessively exposed to market fluctuations and geopolitical matters, often placing upward pressure on household bills;

regrets:

— the Government's continued position that they will not continue electricity credits this winter despite the fact that prices have failed to fall to levels in advance of when they were first introduced in 2022; and

— the excessive liberalisation of the Irish energy market whereby our State-owned energy producer and supplier went from owning 96 per cent of capacity in 2001 to 27 per cent in 2024, which coincided with Irish electricity prices going from the lowest in the EU to the highest; and

calls on the Government to:

— introduce three electricity credits valued at €150 each, totalling €450 to ease the enormous burden on households;

— reverse the carbon tax increase introduced by the Government in 2025, and ensure no further increase to the carbon tax next year, including gas and home heating oil;

— strengthen the mandate and powers of the CRU to hold energy companies to account, prioritise energy affordability and enhance transparency in the energy market;

— ensure oversight of hedging practices to protect against price gouging and profiteering;

— regulate standing charges to keep locked in prices lower;

— sanction anti-competitive behaviour to ensure the proper functioning of the market;

— mandate profit reporting to the CRU on operations in the State by all large energy companies;

— reduce the cost on households from the regressive PSO levy and network charges by making sure large companies pay their fair share by implementing a fair funding model;

— ensure that the draft decision of PR6 is not implemented in its current form;

— end Ireland's over-dependence on energy imports and deliver Irish energy independence; and

— increase public ownership of Ireland's energy supply and operation in order to ensure natural resources are directed toward the generation of national wealth rather than private gain.

Ireland’s cost-of-living crisis is causing workers and families the length and breadth of the country to be hammered by soaring prices. If it is not rents, student fees or voluntary contributions, it is energy bills. Households are bracing for a round of energy price hikes just as the Government is choosing to withdraw energy credits. Energia, Flogas, Bord Gáis Energy, Pinergy and SSE Airtricity have recently announced double-digit increases at a time when many of them are posting huge profits. Some 750,000 households will be forced to pay hundreds more euro, money which they simply do not have. The level of arrears is at record levels. Some 300,000 people are in debt on their electricity bills, while the number of people who cannot pay gas bills has soared to 183,000. That is even with electricity credits in place. The energy regulator has warned that eliminating them is likely to lead to even further spikes and more people in debt, at risk of poverty and in a state of continual anxiety.

Ireland already has the highest electricity prices in Europe. Ordinary people are being absolutely fleeced by energy companies. Are things not bad enough? It is unbelievable that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Healy-Raes and the Lowry-led regional Independents would chose this moment to make the situation even worse. This is another example of a Government that is completely out of touch.

Ireland’s crippling energy prices are not inevitable. The Government does not have to turn a blind eye to the rampant profiteering and price-gouging by energy companies. It does not have to further entrench the deep unfairness at the heart of Ireland’s energy market. These are political choices to prioritise the profit of energy companies and the energy demand of data centres over the needs of ordinary people who are just trying to keep the lights on and stay warm. It is the Government’s inaction, its paralysis in the face of rampant profiteering, which is to blame. The latest task force is nothing more than a smokescreen for the fact that the Government is determined to continue with more of the same.

Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have repeatedly ignored, push backed against or rejected Sinn Féin’s proposals to get prices under control. They disregarded our measures to strengthen the power of the regulator to rein in the energy companies, which have been running roughshod over ordinary people for far too long. They dismissed our calls to overhaul the Government’s regressive approach to network charges and the public service obligation, PSO, levy in order that data centres would pay a fair share. Not only have they totally failed to accelerate the renewable transition at the pace required and they continue to prioritise the private interests of corporate developers overseas over the interests of people on the island. It does not have to be this way. The Government has shown whose needs it is going to prioritise and who it will protect. It is not ordinary people. Enough is enough. The Government must adopt Sinn Féin’s proposals in order that energy companies are held to account.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Tá oibrithe agus teaghlaigh á lomadh ag praghsanna leictreachais atá ródhaor. Tá na praghsanna is airde againn san Aontas Eorpach. Níl a dhath feicthe againn ón Rialtas. Níl sé ag gníomhú ar chor ar bith le dul i ngleic leis na rudaí is cúis leis seo. Anois agus an méid is mó tithe riamh ar chúl lena gcuid billí fuinnimh, tá an Rialtas ag baint tacaíochtaí uathu. Impím ar an Rialtas an rud ceart a dhéanamh agus na creidmheasanna fuinnimh a thabhairt chun tosaigh sa bhuiséad i mbliana seo agus an deis seo a thapú chun na leasuithe molta, atá curtha chun tosaigh ag Sinn Féin, a chur i bhfeidhm.

Workers and families are being absolutely fleeced when it comes to the rip-off electricity prices. We have got the highest electricity prices in the European Union. Despite that, the Government has done nothing - not one thing - to address the underlying causes. This inaction is a betrayal of people who are struggling to pay their bills. Three quarters of a million people are to be hit with double-digit electricity increases in the next number of weeks, starting the day after the budget. Arís is arís eile, Sinn Féin has given the Government solutions, such as power for the energy regulator to hold energy companies to account, oversight of hedging practices to protect against price gouging and profiteering, the regulation of standing charges and making the PSO levy and network charges fair. These could all make a meaningful difference to how much people have to pay, but the Government has chosen to do nothing. The strategy has been to just wait it out and hope the problem goes away. While this Government sits on its hands, more and more people are falling behind on their bills.

What do we have today? We have a record number of households that cannot pay their electricity bills. More than 300,000 households across this State cannot pay their electricity bills. That is before these companies jack up the prices and the Government withdraws the energy credits they are relying on. It does not even scratch the surface of how many people are just managing to keep up. That is why the regulator is warning that those numbers are going to spike this winter. We have record numbers and the regulator is telling the Government that it is going to get even worse this winter if the Government does not change course. People are facing into this winter seeing report after report of prices being increased, dreading getting that next bill through the door.

Government policy has made things actively worse for them. The Government rolled out the red carpet for data centres. Government officials admitted that these centres are driving up prices, making bills more expensive for workers and families. On top of that, we have carbon tax hikes on gas and home heating oil, which is the first of five increases planned by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Independents over the coming years.

There are people in my constituency who are facing into another winter with defective concrete blocks because the Government refused to put in place a fit-for-purpose scheme.

Now there are people in my constituency who have cracks in their houses. You can see through the cracks and put your hand through the cracks. They are trying to keep their homes warm and spending a fortune, and the Government's answer is to jack up the cost of gas and home heating oil and to take away the energy credits. Energy credits were never the solution. They are one-off measures that are supposed to buy time but the Government did not use that time. It did not make any meaningful reforms and is now pulling the only supports that are there when people need them most. We have a record number of people behind in their bills, while 750,000 households will in the coming weeks get double-digit increases and in the same two weeks the Government will withdraw the supports that are required.

People are under immense pressure. Government Members need to get their heads out of the sand. They need to stop this nonsense of a do-nothing Government. After 250 days we still have no action from this Government to get prices under control or to put manners on in relation to the price-gouging and the extortionate prices electricity companies are charging. It is time for the Government to do the right thing and make sure the energy credits Sinn Féin is calling for - €450 to be paid to households this winter - are central to the budget. If it does not, it will guarantee that more and more households - more than the current 300,000 - will not be able to pay their electricity bills this winter.

Mairéad Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein)
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Sometimes we need to be really honest with ourselves. At this moment in time, we know one in five children is living in poverty, 300,000 households are in debt on their electricity bills and nearly 200,000 others are in debt on their gas bills. We need to look at that and make decisions that impact people's lives and help them. We are bringing forward this constructive motion to try to assist in that sense.

The Government countermotion mentions retrofitting. The Minister of State will know well that retrofitting is difficult for many people to access. I am dealing with a man in his 80s who has been waiting nine months to get his house retrofitted. He lives on his own and every day he has to put down a fire and put the coal on the fire. It is incredibly difficult for him, so difficult that he had to contact my office to see if there was any way to get a retrofit done more quickly.

There are countless people with serious issues when it comes to their roofs. Tá fadhbanna le díonta ar fud Conamara, áit nach bhfuil siad in ann retrofitting a fháil i gcomhar an dín sin. Níl an cúnamh ann. Yet their bills increase and many of these people are still waiting to get money back from their electricity providers, having been forced to pay electricity bills during Storm Éowyn when they literally did not have electricity for weeks. These are the big issues facing people and they will only cause more debt as people head into winter. It is a real concern and it is high time the Government took a look at this and ensured a fair distribution of network costs so we can invest for people like those who have lost electricity for weeks on end across Connemara. After every storm that blows a little bit of wind, they lose their electricity because there is not investment in basic infrastructure to ensure they do not lose it again and again for weeks on end.

Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Where did it all go wrong? We built up a publicly owned electricity service that was the pride of our people. We built up electrification when we were a poor country and we had some of the cheapest electricity in Europe. Thanks to the policies of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, that all now lies in ruins. Those parties embraced the privatisation agenda from Europe with glee. They sold the family jewels and today we have the most expensive electricity in all of Europe. That happened not by accident but by design.

When it came to wind energy, it was all about the profits of the few, the insiders. Communities saw turbines popping up around them. These turbines should ensure electricity is cheaper but I will tell the Minister of State a story. In recent weeks, I went to a hill above my home town. There are over 20 turbines on that hill; half of them are switched off during the day because we do not have the electricity infrastructure to avail of wind energy. What was it about? It was about making profits for the people who developed those wind farms, not about reducing costs for our people. The potential of wind energy is huge. If Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael had worked in partnership with communities and ensured ownership stayed as much as possible within communities, we would be benefitting hugely from that today. Those are the facts. Again and again, those parties' intentional policies have put huge profits in the pockets of the few and caused huge difficulties for the rest of us.

Our homeowners and small businesses are paying for what data centres should be fairly contributing towards. The policy approach is always about who is inside the tent and has the resources to influence policy, and we pay the price. I say again we had publicly owned electricity infrastructure which was our pride as a people. It was given away, put in the hands of the wealthy few and this is where we are today. None of this is by accident. It is on the Government to resolve this. It must bring in electricity credits in the budget and, once and for all, get a grip on the energy companies and the handfuls of people making huge profits at the expense of our people and leaving 300,000 families unable to pay their bills. A very high percentage of those have now gone over nine months without being able to pay their bills. That is the outworking of failed policies. The Government needs to own them, take responsibility and sort it out.

Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein)
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In the past few weeks, we have all heard the crushing news that electricity providers are increasing prices by significant amounts this year, but there has been no intervention by the Government to protect those forced to pay the highest prices in Europe. SSE Airtricity will increase bills by 9.5%, Energia by as much as 12% and Bord Gáis by a whopping 13.5%. Hundreds of thousands of people across the State are already in arrears on their bills. Now energy customers face even bigger bills. We are facing into another winter. We can all feel the cold and are putting the heat on these past few nights, but some people will have to choose between eating and heating. All the while the energy companies are raking in profits.

Not only has the Government done nothing to intervene but it has also ignored the pushback and Sinn Féin's proposals to get prices under control. Sinn Féin wants an end to the rip-off once and for all. We want the Government to empower the regulator to rein in the energy companies and their profiteering and to change its approach to network charges and PSO levies. We have asked it to reduce the unfair burden placed on households and ensure data centres pay their fair share. All of this, the Government has ignored.

Data centres are putting a strain on the grid with their massive energy consumption - now increased with AI - and increasing demand, causing increased energy bills for households.

The quality of the service is also deteriorating. In Straffan in my constituency of Kildare North, they have been dealing with near monthly power outages for the past two years. Last month in Kilcock, people were left without electricity intermittently for a couple of days, with no warning. Only last week, my home town of Maynooth had similar. How can the Government expect people to pay more to energy providers when the providers cannot even keep the lights on for them?

We in Sinn Féin want to end the rip-off once and for all, tackle profiteering and bring prices down. I urge the Government to reinstate the electricity credits in the budget and help alleviate fuel poverty for hundreds of thousands of households this year.

Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein)
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Electricity and energy costs are crippling families across the country. We have seen almost all energy companies announce price increases in recent weeks and we know these companies are amassing massive profits year on year. There are already thousands of families behind on their electricity and energy bills. I know this debt will grow in my constituency for these families while the Government turns its back on them to protect the profits of the massive energy companies.

We saw the devastation caused to the electricity network last January when Storm Éowyn hit the country. My constituency of Sligo, Leitrim and south Donegal was particularly badly hit. We know people and families who went without heat for weeks on end, some for 13 and 14 weeks. When the repairs were carried out, it was only on a temporary basis. The permanent fixes have not been done. People who work in the ESB tell me it is only a matter of time before the next storm comes and there are more outages because only temporary fixes were put in place.

The Government has failed to invest in the network to be resilient from storms. Families are paying exorbitant amounts for electricity, and particularly in rural areas, they are going for extended periods without service, as they did during Storm Éowyn, and receive no compensation for the lack of service.

The Government has ruled out energy credits which will cause energy and fuel poverty for many households. We need to see an increase in the fuel allowance and household benefits packages to take into account these increases in energy costs. Many working families earn a decent wage but are struggling to pay energy bills. That is why we need an energy credit for all households in the upcoming budget. This country is still in a cost-of-living crisis and providing an energy credit will go some way at least to alleviating many of these costs for households, and indeed for many businesses out there that are also crippled by the high energy costs.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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It is beyond time that we end the rip-off of energy bills facing every household and business up and down the country already on their knees with the cost-of-living crisis. More energy increases come at a time when we are already paying the highest levels of energy prices in Europe. That is a badge of dishonour for this Government. How many homes are going to be cold tonight as people try to hold out and not turn on the heat until next month? This staggering cost of energy in the State is a direct result of political choices by this Government. We know 300,000 and 175,000 customers are in arrears in their electricity and gas bills, respectively. If the Government follows through on withdrawing energy credits this winter, the energy regulator has warned that the number of households in arrears could spike dramatically. When is the Government going to wake up on this?

Let me be clear on the actions Sinn Féin wants the Government to take. It is asking the Government to support struggling households. Allocate a €450 energy credit, a real and sizeable measure that would be felt immediately. Hold energy companies to account over the extortionate rates charged to consumers. The wholesale prices are 75% less than they were in their peak in 2022. Why are these savings not being passed on to customers? Take action to reduce the unjust network charges. The CRU draft decision published in July revealed that the cost for data centres will decrease, but cost for households and SMEs will increase. Stop keeping carbon taxes on families who are already struggling to heat their homes, keep their cars on the roads and have no alternative. Can the Minister of State imagine what it is like for a single mother to have to buy a few gallons of home heating oil at a time, then to have to drag that drum through the house, climb up to the oil tank and pour in enough oil for a couple of days for heating? That is the reality for too many people I know who are living in fuel poverty. In the rip-off, get prices under control and support struggling families. That is what the Government needs to do.

I know we are over-reliant on international markets for our energy and there is no hiding of that. We import 80% of our energy, leaving us almost entirely exposed to the markets. Now is the time to diversify our supply, to invest in renewable energy infrastructure and to grow our indigenous energy sector and create Irish jobs. I urge the Government to consider the proposals in this motion to finally end the rip-off of Irish households and to hold the energy companies to account for their extortionate prices.

The Government cannot leave families in the situation they are in going through this winter like this. The energy credits have to be restored as an immediate measure. The Government can have all the plans it wants, and I see in its ridiculous amendment all the backslapping and the good intentions, but there are people tonight who cannot afford to turn their heat on. There are people who cannot afford their electricity bills. The Government has to do something about it.

Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)
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I move:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:

"notes that:

— the Government is acutely aware of the recent energy price increases and the impact it has on households and businesses;

— the Government acknowledges the latest data for June shows that 13 per cent of households are in arrears on their electricity bills and 25 per cent on their gas bills, and supporting these households must remain a priority;

— the previous Government introduced a suite of measures over recent years to help households and businesses deal with the rising cost of energy at a time of very high inflation, including €1,500 in electricity credits to all households through four Electricity Costs Emergency Benefit Schemes, at a cost of €3.3 billion, this is in addition to one-off payments to support certain social protection payment recipients;

— the Government provides support for households through schemes, including the Fuel Allowance, Household Benefits Package (HBP) and Additional Needs Payment;

— Irish electricity and gas prices have historically been higher than other European Union (EU) countries due to long standing drivers, such as geographical isolation, dispersed population, fossil fuel dependency and small market scale;

— the electricity and gas markets in Ireland are commercial, liberalised, and competitive, and competitive energy markets result in greater choice for consumers and businesses, in terms of suppliers, products and prices, price setting by electricity suppliers is a commercial and operational matter for the companies concerned; and

— the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) published a report on retail energy markets in September 2023 in relation to competition and supplier pricing in the energy market, based on a review of supplier prices and wholesale market costs, the CRU considers that retail prices broadly continue to reflect underlying cost drivers, such as wholesale gas and electricity prices, but with a lag period due to supplier hedging strategies; and

affirms that:

— the Government has approved an extension of the 9 per cent Value Added Tax rate currently applied to gas and electricity to end in October 2025 at an estimated cost of €85 million with the net benefit to households from 1st May to 31st October being approximately €26.60 with respect to electricity and €20.28 with respect to gas;

— a range of social welfare measures are available to assist households with energy costs;

— the first winter Fuel Allowance payment of €33 per week starts this week and will continue for 28 weeks, totalling €924 each year, this payment supports over 410,000 households with their energy costs;

— the HBP supports over 540,000 households with their gas and electricity bills and is paid at a rate of €35 per month, 12 months of the year;

— the Additional Needs Payment scheme is available in cases where a person genuinely cannot meet this cost from their own resources and provides a discretionary exceptional needs payment to help meet essential costs, such as a fuel bill;

— following a review of the effectiveness of consumer protection measures over the past winter, the CRU announced some key consumer protection measures will stay in place, including a moratorium on disconnection for vulnerable customers from 1st November, 2025, until 31st March, 2026; and

— the Government has established the National Energy Affordability Taskforce (the Taskforce) to identify, assess and implement measures that will enhance energy affordability for households and businesses while delivering key renewable commitments and protecting security of supply and economic stability;

— the Taskforce:

— will ensure that energy affordability is incorporated into the review of CRU and the regulatory framework;

— is chaired by the Department of Climate, Energy and the Environment, and its membership includes, representatives of various Government Departments and crucial energy sector stakeholders, the work will include, the preparation and implementation of an energy affordability action plan, which will include recommendations for structural reforms to benefit consumers in the medium- and long-term;

— their work will include, a full review of cost drivers within the energy sector, and consideration of how the EU Action Plan for Affordable Energy: Unlocking the true value of our Energy Union to secure affordable, efficient and clean energy for all Europeans and associated guidance can be implemented in an Irish context; and

— their first item of work is the development of an interim plan, including measures for consideration to support customers in Winter 2025/26, in order to inform Budget 2026 discussions;

— the wider package of energy efficiency supports, available from Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, make it easier and more affordable for homeowners to undertake home energy upgrades, for warmer, healthier and more comfortable homes, with lower energy bills, and this year, a record annual capital budget of more than €550 million has been allocated for these schemes, including the Solar Photovoltaic Scheme, meaning more funding than ever is available to make buildings warmer, healthier, more comfortable and less expensive to heat;

— a record €280 million has been allocated to the Warmer Homes Scheme to provide fully funded upgrades for households at risk of energy poverty, representing an 11-fold increase over the spend on the scheme in 2020 and underlines the Government's commitment to supporting households with their energy costs;

— the Government is committed to continuing with the planned carbon tax increases, aligning with recommendations from the Climate Change Advisory Council and scientific experts, and to continue to use the additional revenues to fund social welfare measures, agri-environmental schemes and retrofitting;

— the National Development Plan will provide for the provision of up to €3.5 billion in additional equity for Electricity Supply Board Networks and EirGrid to support an unprecedented investment in electricity grid infrastructure over 2026 – 2030, this equity will enable the companies to raise finance for the planned investment of up to €18.08 billion;

— this investment will support the delivery of the electricity grid for 2026 – 2030 in line with the CRU Price Review Six (PR6) draft determination published in July, and represents a step change in investment in our electricity grid infrastructure;

— while it is regrettable that Electricity Network tariffs will increase to support this investment under PR6, the investments in vital infrastructure are necessary to transform our electricity system to support a growing population, new housing and expanding businesses;

— the Programme for Government reaffirms Ireland's ambitious targets of 9 gigawatts (GW) of onshore wind capacity, 8 GW of solar capacity and at least 5 GW of offshore wind capacity connected to the grid in order to meet the requirement of 80 per cent of electricity demand supplied by renewables;

— the Public Services Obligation (PSO) levy funds Ireland's renewable electricity support schemes, the Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff and the Renewable Electricity Support Scheme, and is a key enabler of investment needed to meet national targets for renewable generation and carbon emissions reduction;

— the PSO levy has a reduction of about 40 per cent on 2024/25 to €2 a month or circa €24 in the year;

— the Programme for Government sets out a clear policy direction that balances energy, housing, climate and economic development, recognising that increased and unprecedented investment in our electricity grid and generation capacity is essential to meet future demand, not just for data centres but for housing, electric vehicles, heat pumps and a growing population;

— the best long-term approach for Ireland to insulate consumers from volatility on international wholesale energy markets is to invest in energy efficiency and renewable energy, cutting our dependence on fossil fuels and generating power from our own renewable sources ensuring a cleaner, cheaper energy future; and

— the Government will continue to engage with a range of stakeholders through the pre-budget process and in advance of forming measures for inclusion in Budget 2026."

Gabhaim buíochas leis na Teachtaí i bPáirtí Shinn Féin ós rud é gur thug siad an díospóireacht seo os comhair na Dála. Tugann sé deis dom é seo a phlé anocht. In the past year, there has been a certain level of stability with regard to energy prices, but a number of suppliers have announced price increases in the coming weeks. Domestic energy prices and cost-of-living pressures are matters of serious concern. The Government is acutely aware - we are all TDs in our constituencies - of the challenges households in meeting these costs and we want to support those most at risk. I would like to take the opportunity to reaffirm to the House that the Government has made a number of important commitments in respect of addressing the continued high cost of energy. The programme for Government acknowledges the increased energy cost pressures on households and businesses and commits to bringing forward taxation measures to help contain energy costs.

The electricity and gas retail markets operate within a European Union regulatory regime wherein electricity and gas markets are commercial and liberalised. That is not the same as saying it is privatised. Competition has been brought into the market. However, the idea that the family silver was sold off - in the words of Deputy Mac Lochlainn - is not accurate. Competition is not the same thing as privatisation. Price setting by electricity suppliers, including standing charges, is a commercial and operational matter for the companies concerned. Each company has its own approach to pricing decisions over time. Within a competitive environment, providers also have costs they always have. The CRU ended its regulation of retail prices in the electricity market in 2011 and in the gas market in 2014. The CRU carried out a review of the pricing and hedging strategies of energy suppliers in 2023. Following this review the regulator published a report outlining that it saw no evidence of failure in the retail market, but it would continue to monitor this.

Network tariffs, which are a significant component of a customer's bill, are used to finance the maintenance and expansion of our grid. These are necessary tasks to ensure our journey to net zero and that we can actually generate and distribute electricity produced on this island. This will have long run benefits for electricity users throughout Ireland. Delivering investment in our grid, including the full price review 6, PR6, programme, offers one of the fastest means by which to impact upon overall electricity costs to consumers. PR6 will deliver the programme for Government priority to ensure that the necessary investment is made in our grid. The CRU as the independent economic regulator of EirGrid and ESB Networks is responsible for PR6. The CRU public consultation on PR6 has recently closed and now the CRU will independently consider submissions received before publishing a final decision. The Government fully supports the full implementation of the associated programme of works.

To support the investment, the Government is investing €3.5 billion in equity in EirGrid and ESB Networks - State companies - to ensure that the PR6 infrastructure programme can be delivered. This will reduce borrowing costs for the system operator companies and help keep consumer costs down. In relation to data centres, while already contracted data centres will be accommodated in the near term, the Government has committed to developing a plan-led approach for future large energy users to accelerate energy generation, connectivity and planning processes. This will align with our decarbonisation objectives, supporting Ireland’s knowledge-led economy and providing certainty for the sector. Ireland has attracted the best data centre and tech companies in the world. This is a really important relationship, and the Government continues to work with the sector towards a secure and decarbonised energy future. The Government supports the work of the CRU in developing an updated large energy users, LEU, connection policy, which will consider the impact of future LEU connections on the capacity of our energy and grid infrastructure.

The Government is aware that energy customers in Ireland still pay significantly more on their energy bills than they did in 2020. The Government has taken action to ensure households are supported to meet these costs. It has introduced measures over recent years to help households and businesses deal with the rising cost of energy, including electricity credits to all households through four electricity costs emergency benefit schemes at a cost of €3.3 billion. This is in addition to one-off payments to support certain social protection payment recipients. The Government is committed to addressing high energy costs experienced by consumers. The programme for Government acknowledges this and commits to bringing forward measures to help maintain the costs. The Government recently approved an extension of the 9% VAT rate currently applied to gas and electricity by a further six months to October 2025 at an estimated cost of €85 million.

Historically, a VAT rate of 13% has been applied to gas and electricity, but this has been reduced to 9% since 2022, and it does cost taxation money to maintain that.

The regulator recently published enhanced customer protection measures for the upcoming winter period. A key measure includes a disconnection moratorium. This will remain in place from 1 November 2025 to the end of March 2026 for vulnerable customers, while the moratorium for priority services registered customers will remain in place all year. The winter disconnection moratorium for all other domestic customers will be in place from 8 December until 16 January. It is important that anybody who is struggling with bills is strongly encouraged to engage with his or her supplier. Under the energy engage code, suppliers will not disconnect customers who engage with them.

The Government is working at speed to roll out more renewable energy infrastructure. This is already helping to bring down the cost of electricity and is the long-term solution to high energy bills. The programme for Government reaffirms Ireland’s ambitious renewable targets to meet the requirement of 80% of electricity demand supplied by renewables by 2030. The PSO levy is a crucial policy instrument to achieving these targets by funding Ireland’s renewable electricity support schemes, REFIT and RESS. The PSO levy is a key enabler of investment needed to meet our targets for renewable generation, carbon emission reductions and lower costs. It represents a modest element of customer bills and will reduce in the coming tariff year by 40% to €24 in the year. In addition, the Government is making it easier for people to improve their energy efficiency and produce their own energy through a range of grants to install solar PV on homes, businesses and farms. Yes, we would like for all of this to be rolled out more quickly but it is rolling out and lots of people are benefiting from this. The previous budget included record funding of €469 million from the carbon tax for residential and community energy upgrades. That was an increase in funding and meant more money was available to make buildings warmer, healthier, more comfortable and less expensive to heat, and that is having an impact around the country.

In June of this year, a cross-Government national energy affordability task force, chaired by the Minister, Deputy O’Brien, was established to identify, assess and implement measures that would enhance energy affordability for households and businesses while delivering key renewable commitments and protecting security of supply for economic stability. Further measures to support Irish consumers, including targeted schemes, will be considered as part of the work programme of the national energy affordability task force. A key output of this task force will be to develop an energy affordability action plan that will identify a comprehensive range of solutions, including demand-side solutions for households to allow them to adjust their energy demand and avail of low cost renewable energy.

Task force members are currently finalising the preparation of an interim report, which will set out measures for consideration as part of the budget process next month. I understand that the Minister, Darragh O’Brien, has engaged with all energy suppliers to gain an understanding of support measures they may introduce for households this winter. A number of meetings have also been scheduled for the coming weeks for the Minister to discuss these matters directly with energy supply companies.

The Government will continue to make the critical investments necessary to achieve a just energy and climate transition, as affirmed in the programme for Government. However, we are also acutely aware of the impact high energy costs have on Irish households and the Government is committed to providing effective and practical supports for those struggling with these costs. Supporting the most vulnerable in society must remain a priority and the Government is committed to doing so in budget 2026 and beyond.

Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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There are 300,000 people in energy debt. The Minister for Finance will stand in this Chamber on this day two weeks and talk about how well we are doing in managing the economy when people in my constituency will be going to bed early because they cannot afford to turn the heating on. If the Minister of State goes to any of the shopping centres out my way, he will meet a lot of people who are sitting around. Many of them are elderly. When they are asked why they are there, they say they are there to meet friends but they are also there because they cannot afford to turn on the heating at home. That is the reason they are there and their friends will tell you that is why Mary or Johnny is there every day.

That is the reality for many people in my constituency. The Minister of State said there was a retrofit scheme. If those elderly people are living in council housing, there is a difficulty. We know that, in my local authority area, the funding the local authority gets will take possibly another 30 years to get around the council housing stock and then we are back to square one. There is a big challenge for those people. For people who own their own homes, the challenge in relation to retrofitting is getting the funding for it. There are huge challenges there as well.

There is also the cost of wholesale electricity. It has actually fallen since 2022 yet bills for householders continue to rise, as we have heard. The question people are asking has to do with why Irish people are paying the highest prices for electricity in Europe. I do not hear any answers from the Minister of State. Far from holding the energy companies to account, the Government wants to strip away the one relief workers and families had in the energy credit. The Government has also committed to hiking the carbon tax over the next five budgets, making homes even more expensive to heat and denying people any chance of retrofitting their homes. The Government has rejected all calls to strengthen the regulator so it can finally hold the energy companies to account.

Surely we have to reduce the cost to households of progressive PSO levies and network charges by making sure large companies pay their fair share by implementing a fairer model. That would be Sinn Féin's approach. We have heard the Government's approach. It is not working for a lot of people who are out there, the people who are sitting in those shopping centres. They are elderly, but not exclusively so, and it impacts on families as well. We are asking that the Government take notice of this and start to act.

Sorca Clarke (Longford-Westmeath, Sinn Fein)
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Families across the country are at breaking point and people are being hammered with sky-high costs every which way they turn, from rent, to food, to fuel and to insurance, and now they will be forced to pay hundreds of euro more on energy bills. We already have the highest energy prices in Europe and families are paying on average €500 more than households anywhere else - money they simply do not have. Tonight, in homes across this country, there are people who are asking themselves how they will keep the lights on and how they will heat their homes this winter, while big energy companies have announced fresh price hikes on top of already punishing bills. No amount of task forces or plans will be of any comfort to a family wondering where they will get 20 quid to put in the electricity meter. They will be of zero comfort.

Let us be clear: this was not and is not inevitable. This is a political choice. The Government has chosen to protect the profits of energy companies and data centres instead of protecting ordinary people. The Government is withdrawing energy credits at a time people need them most. The Government is allowing rampant profiteering to go unchecked all while it ignores Sinn Féin's proposals to strengthen the regulator, cut unfair charges and make sure data centres, not households, pay their fair share. Over 475,000 households are in electricity and gas arrears. Families owe hundreds of euro in arrears that they simply cannot pay. The rate of disconnections is rising sharply. People are being pushed into making impossible choices. Do they heat their homes or do they put food on their tables? The truth is, wholesale prices have fallen, companies continue to gouge, the Government shrugs and families suffer. Sinn Féin would end this rip-off once and for all by providing energy credits of €450 to ease the burden in the interim. We would give the regulator real teeth in order to hold companies to account, ban profiteering and regulate standing charges. We would make those data centres pay their fair share and bring down network costs for families. It is time to stop choosing energy companies over families. It is time to end the rip-off, hold these corporations to account and bring down prices for good.

Denise Mitchell (Dublin Bay North, Sinn Fein)
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During the past few weeks, we have seen the main electricity companies announce more price hikes. These same companies have had record profits during the past few years. We are now facing into a very long and cold winter. I have constituents who are already behind in their bills. These are people who never had an issue in paying their bills before. Now, they are looking at another hike in electricity costs on the bill they are already struggling to pay. My colleagues have already said this but I will say it again: we have the highest energy costs across Europe. How much more does the Minister of State expect our people to take? The Government needs to wake up. People are struggling and have been for a long time.

It is fine for the Government to come in here and talk about previous supports but the people want to know what it is going to do in the here and now. A lot of people across Dublin Bay North are already struggling. They are struggling to buy their groceries, to pay their already rip-off rents and to get their kids to college, and that is without landing these energy hikes on top of them. I want people to realise that this is a political choice by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry group. How many times has Sinn Féin come in to this House and given the Minister of State a roadmap out of this crisis? Yet again, here we are, giving him another plan to support the people who will need it. What will he do? He will probably do nothing. He will probably continue to allow people to struggle and be crippled by debt just to keep their children warm this winter. Let me lay it out clearly for him. Give people the energy credits. They are crying out for them. Give them that €450 credit to help them keep the lights and the heat on this winter.

Ann Graves (Dublin Fingal East, Sinn Fein)
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Energy companies are putting their hands into the pockets of working families and helping themselves to their hard-earned cash. This is happening because the Government is not holding these greedy companies to account. Its policy of appeasing these energy companies is causing huge hardship for people. People in Ireland are already paying the highest electricity prices in Europe and the fifth-highest price when it comes to gas. This is having a very real and negative impact on the lives of ordinary people in my constituency. I was with the Swords women's shed this morning and the topic of conversation across the board was the impact of the cost of living on everybody. People come into my office with stories of how they are pressed to the pin of their collar simply to cover the basics. Food, rent and heating bills are causing stress, particularly for those who should be at a stage in their lives where they are enjoying themselves after a life of working hard and paying their taxes. That is without looking at back-to-school costs or anything else. I am talking about the basics.

One woman told me about how she has to watch every single penny of her pension. She goes to bed at 6 o'clock every evening as she can no longer afford to turn on her heating in her home. It is a choice of eat or heat. What type of life is that for a pensioner? A volunteer with the Society of St. Vincent de Paul told me how the demand for its service and assistance has risen dramatically. This is due to the spiralling energy costs. Energy companies have to be held to account. The forthcoming budget is an opportunity to address this. Sinn Féin wants energy credits to be included in the budget because this Government has made the political choice of putting the profits of energy companies ahead of the needs of our people. Our proposals are focused on bringing relief to hard-pressed families. We are proposing the introduction of three electricity credits valued at €150 each to a total value of €450 to ease the enormous burden that is on families and older people. We would strengthen the mandate and powers of the energy regulator to hold energy companies to account and prioritise energy affordability. We are committed to holding the energy companies to account. The Minister of State said he was acutely aware of the situation people are living in. What is he going to do to end this energy rip-off?

Ciarán Ahern (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion. I admit I am uncomfortable with the element of it concerning the carbon tax from a climate perspective. The Labour Party believes that it is an important tax and that the polluter-pays principle is an important one in terms of our response to the climate crisis. I completely accept that there are people in homes who may have no other option right now than to remain on oil and gas heating but carve-outs in the carbon tax system that would protect the most financially vulnerable are possible. We in the Labour Party have proposed a refundable carbon tax credit to encourage those who can reduce their emissions while protecting those in low-income households and still ensure big polluters pay their fair share. Notwithstanding that, we will be supporting this otherwise excellent motion and again I thank Sinn Féin for bringing it before the House.

For the past number of years under Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments, we have been in what feels like a permanent cost-of-living crisis. People are being squeezed from every angle, be it grocery inflation, the cost of renting and buying a home, and childcare costs, something this Government has been conspicuously silent on since its pre-election commitment to reduce fees to €200 a month. We know student fees will be going up by at least €500 this year. Compounding it all we have the matter at hand, namely, energy bills. Barnardos recently reported that 40% of parents have been forced into borrowing money to help to pay for essentials for their children, while lone parents are disproportionately more likely to cut back on those essentials. We are literally seeing parents going hungry so that their children are fed. Others are going without heating in their homes or are taking on debt just to keep the lights on.

When we hear from the Government that budget 2026 will not be a cost-of-living budget, I am struck by the cynicism of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. For a couple of years in the lead-up to last year's general election, we had "The Late Late Show"-style one-for-everyone-in-the-audience giveaway budgets to buy votes. Now that they have got themselves back into government, they have decided it is time to tighten the purse strings. It is utterly cynical. This year, we need a cost-of-living budget that targets and supports the most vulnerable households, takes real and meaningful measures to help parents who are struggling, and lifts low-income households and children out of poverty. Indeed, the Labour Party will be bringing forward a motion on these very issues tomorrow.

I find it particularly galling that we are hearing from the Government that we cannot afford a cost-of-living budget but we can afford to hand more than €630 million in VAT cuts to the hospitality sector this year. This sector is currently experiencing record levels of employment - for every closure, 11 new businesses open - and is no stranger to price-gouging, particularly in accommodation. It already enjoys a reduced VAT rate. Some €630 million is a huge sum of money and how it is deployed is a political choice. Giving it over to VAT cuts for the hospitality sector leaves less space for supports for working and vulnerable people. If it is a choice between supporting people through this cost-of-living crisis or supporting the bottom line of McDonald's or the Merrion Hotel, I know where the Labour Party stands.

We need to see targeted energy credits in the coming budget. As the motion notes, there are 300,000 people in arrears on their electricity bills and 185,000 people in arrears on gas bills. Those are the people we need to be supporting with meaningful and targeted measures. We are approaching three years since the first universal energy credits were paid out. Surely that has been enough time for the Government to have devised a way to target those credits more effectively.

We need to talk about the energy companies as well. They are running rings around us. Flogas has hiked its prices by 7% after its parent company, DCC, recorded operating profits of €820 million in its most recent accounts. Energia is increasing electricity prices by more than 12% after making a very healthy €154 million in profits last year. SSE Airtricity has announced a 9.5% increase in electricity rates, its second hike this year after a 10.5% increase in electricity in April alongside an 8.4% increase in gas prices. Its most recent accounts show a €111 million operating profit. Bord Gáis Energy and Pinergy are also hiking their prices as they trade profitably. There is a word for this and it is "profiteering". It is blatant greed. Ordinary families, many of whom are already struggling, are paying for this. How are they supposed to cope? As imperfect as they were, the energy credits were a lifeline for so many people and people have become reliant on them. The Government is now going cold turkey on them. The result is that some people will simply go cold.

The bigger picture here is that these energy companies need to be reined in. This gross profiteering in the midst of a cost-of-living crisis needs to be stamped out. This oligarchical-like behaviour needs to be stamped out. The energy market is supposed to be competitive but the companies are carrying on more like cartels. The Minister of State needs to start looking seriously at ways we could reintroduce some level of regulation on energy prices beyond network tariffs. I know it is not easy. The markets are governed by a hodgepodge of different EU-level rules but there are carve-outs that allow for price regulation in order to protect customers and we should be looking to exploit these. As the Minister of State will be aware, under EU energy market rules our electricity and gas markets have been fully liberalised. The CRU judged competition to be effective in the electricity market in 2011 and in the gas market in 2014. The ESB, via Electric Ireland, still holds a large market share by virtue of its once monopolised position but competition had developed at the time to the point that the CRU judged that it was effective enough to protect consumers and keep prices down.

Once that happened EU rules meant that they could no longer justify blanket price regulation and so regulations were lifted. If we look to the North, Power NI is a former monopoly provider similar to how the ESB once was here in the South. Because Power NI still holds a very large share of the domestic market, its tariffs are regulated by the Utility Regulator to ensure that customers are protected and that prices remain fair. This was the case even prior to Brexit when EU competition law applied in the North because the European Commission accepted the case that there were less competitive dynamics in the North and regulation of Power NI's tariffs was continued as a public service measure. I think we are approaching a point where those competitive dynamics that enabled the liberalisation of our energy markets back in the 2010s have failed. Competition has not delivered better and fairer prices for consumers. Instead, it seems that energy companies have given up on the idea of competing with each other and a price hike by one gives an excuse for a price hike by the rest. Are vulnerable customers protected by this approach? Is this a sign of a functioning market? Under EU electricity and gas directives, price regulation is allowed in exceptional circumstances such as when competition is not working, or in order to protect those vulnerable customers. I believe that we are very much approaching the point, if we are not already there, where we can justifiably claim that competition in the Irish energy markets has failed and that the Minister should be looking to exploit those exceptional circumstances provisions in EU rules in order to rein in the energy companies. At the very least he should be making the case to the European Commission.

Another avenue that I think might be worth exploring, one closer to home, is the powers conferred on the Minister under section 10 of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999, which allows a Minister to issue policy directions to the regulator, the CRU, provided the Minister does not instruct on any individual case. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, may be aware that this was utilised by one of his predecessors to introduce what became known as the large energy user rebalancing subvention. It was intended to achieve a permanent rebalancing of network tariffs by shifting part of the transmission and distribution network costs away from large industrial users and onto domestic customers. It reduced costs for around 1,500 corporate energy users and was ended in 2022. Perhaps the Minister could consider using some similar mechanism, but in the inverse, to reduce costs for households by increasing the network costs burden on the large energy users. There is a case to be made, particularly in the context of data centres and the effect they are having on our energy costs. It is beyond baffling that, as the motion puts it, the draft price review, PR6, proposes to increase costs on households while giving a discount to data centres. These are the same data centres that are putting our energy system under enormous pressure with a 412% increase in electricity usage in the past decade leading to increased costs for ordinary households. The Government knows this. The Secretary General in the Department of public expenditure has said himself that soaring electricity demand is largely attributable to data centres. This follows the Secretary General in the Minister's own Department of energy saying that we are getting to the point where the Government must choose between the power demands of data centres and building homes. Ordinary working families are paying for this and, quite simply, it is wrong. Do we want to be a country that looks after its citizens, one that ensures they can afford to keep their homes warm and their lights on, or are we more interested in protecting big businesses like tech companies? Of course there is also the climate element and the impact data centres are having on our water usage and our emissions. The massive energy demands from these data centres means they guzzle through fossil fuels and are taking basically all of the relatively small amount of new renewable energy we are currently producing. This renewable energy could be used to decarbonise our homes, reduce our bills or electrify our public transport, but instead it is being gobbled by data centres.

It is notable that the Government has scrapped its own energy poverty action plan in favour of advancing an energy affordability action plan. This seems to be a ruse to shift the focus away from energy poverty among struggling households and towards businesses impacted by high energy costs. This is all about political choices and priorities. It is a political choice to give a massive tax cut to the hospitality sector while denying vulnerable households desperately needed supports. It is a political choice to allow energy companies to run riot rather than even make an attempt at reining them in. It is a political choice to put the needs of tech companies and data centres over the needs of ordinary households. It seems to me that this Government is making all the wrong choices. We will see whose side they are on come budget day.

Conor Sheehan (Limerick City, Labour)
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I thank the Deputy. Before we move on I want to welcome the IFA future leaders group to the Public Gallery. They are here with Deputy William Aird.

Gary Gannon (Dublin Central, Social Democrats)
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I too welcome our guests in the Gallery. I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion tonight. It is timely. Many households will be looking in on this debate with eagerness because winter is approaching. We broadly agree with most aspects of the motion before us this evening. We live in a country where energy prices are among the highest in Europe. That reality is hitting households hard, with hundreds of thousands of families in arrears and many more just keeping their heads above water. The truth is that energy poverty is now a daily reality for far too many people and it very clearly demands urgent and serious attention.

Where we do disagree with the motion is on the proposal to roll out universal energy credits. Not everybody in the country needs them. Clearly we are a country of haves and have-nots and there are very many people who are cutting their cloth close to the bone. Lots of people can pay their energy bills but many more are really struggling. We believe the measures should be targeted. What resources we have should be spent on those who really need support, such as low-income households, people who are already in arrears, families, and schools who are being pushed quite close to the brink. This is where targeted action is most effective, otherwise we are spreading the money too thinly and it becomes more about the optics than the outcomes.

In our constituencies schools are feeling the crisis in a particularly acute way. Rutland Street school is one school I have spoken about in this Chamber on more than one occasion. Their electricity costs are among their biggest annual expenses, like so many other schools. They have now reached the point where they are relying on the so-called advance funding. This is not extra money or new investment; it is just borrowing from their own future budgets. This does not solve anything, or lessen the anxiety that comes with knowing how they are going to keep the lights on come January, rather than simply keeping the heating on come October. It is a sign of the reality that schools across the country are in financially precarious positions and it punishes children in the process. If we are serious about tackling the cost-of-living crisis, and particularly targeted energy costs, then schools such as Rutland Street have to be part of the conversation.

There is a wider point here too. A transition that leaves behind our most vulnerable is not a just transition. We need a people-first approach where nobody is left behind. Right now too many households are being asked to shoulder costs when large corporations continue to consume vast amounts of electricity at a fraction of the budget. It is quite clearly not fair. It is very obviously not sustainable. The failures are clear also when we are looking at housing. My colleague, Deputy Whitmore, recently pointed out the Dublin City Council figures that just 17% of apartments under the council's remit have been retrofitted. This is shocking. It is not a Dublin-only issue. The same story is playing out in towns and cities right across the country. If we are not retrofitting our public housing stock, we are condemning thousands of families to remain in energy poverty indefinitely.

Yes we agree with much of the motion. We need emergency measures and we need stronger oversight of energy companies. We need to ensure that the profits of the few do not come at the expense of so many, including our schools. We do, however, also need to be clear about what must be targeted directly to those in arrears, to those in our school communities, and to those who are on the brink. That is the only way we can alleviate the current crisis and build a fairer, people-first energy future.

Rory Hearne (Dublin North-West, Social Democrats)
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I thank Sinn Féin for bringing the motion forward. It is absolutely essential that we keep the focus on the cost-of-living crisis. It is incredible, when we think about it, that we are calling it the cost-of-living crisis. It is too expensive to get the basic things that are required to live your life. It is truly shocking the extent to which profits are being made by companies, by grocery stores, by food outlets, by gas and electricity companies, and by our own State company, the ESB. Profit gouging is happening in so many areas. Who is paying for it? It is ordinary households. This is why we have seen child poverty rates double when we have never been as wealthy. There have never been such levels of economic growth. There is something fundamentally wrong in the way in which our economy and society is operating.

We are seeing already that it is an early winter. People feel it. Temperatures are dropping already and many people are already facing the choice between eating or turning on their heating. In many situations in families it is parents who are deciding to forgo their own meals. The figures from Barnardo's have shown this.

Parents in this country are forgoing eating a meal so their children can have a meal. This is 2025; it is not 1905. What is going on here? If we look, for example, at SSE Airtricity customers, from 20 October a typical customer's annual bill will increase by about €150. This is a massive increase for families who are facing back-to-school costs, massive food inflation and skyrocketing rents. Where does it end? One in five children are at risk of poverty after their families pay the housing costs, be it rent or a mortgage. This will be compounded. We will see the number of children in poverty increase when these energy costs are added in. It is not just inflation and we should call it out for what it is. It is greedflation. We should name it and the Government itself should not be afraid to name it. It is greedflation. Companies are making massive profits off the backs of people being pushed into poverty and not being able to afford the basic cost of living.

We know that incomes cannot keep pace with this. The energy poverty crisis that is ongoing is going to continue for people. Energia generated a profit after tax of €135 million in 2024. Bord Gáis Energy also made hundreds of millions of euro in profit in 2024 and 2025. Who is seeing the benefits of these profits? It is not the families who are scraping by and who are unsure whether they can continue to do so. We have allowed a society and culture to develop where families and children go cold and hungry in order that the profits of big companies are sated and fulfilled. I ask the question again. This is 2025 in Ireland, in an economy that is supposed to be a social-market economy and a balanced economy that is about feeding, supporting and nurturing a society, not just profit at all costs, yet it feels we are back in the laissez-faireearly Dickensian capitalist days where people go hungry while other people amass wealth and money.

The social contract has been broken, and for what? For these companies to make more profits. The Government has to start prioritising the families who are stretched. There are two Irelands, and indeed there are many Irelands today. There is a small number who are doing okay but there is a majority that, at some level, is struggling in one way or another to cover the basic costs of living. Luxuries used to be a holiday, nice clothes, a meal out - things people saw as treating themselves. Today, a luxury and a treat, for some people, is actually turning the heat on. This is outrageous in a country that is one of the wealthiest in the world. The Government promised an energy poverty action plan. It has not been implemented and it is very clear that the Government's priority is not implementing measures that will actually alleviate this real poverty. Instead, it is too busy and unwilling to challenge the massive greedflation we are seeing.

Eoin Hayes (Dublin Bay South, Social Democrats)
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As a chemical engineer and a former climate technologist I am gravely concerned by the problem of accelerating energy costs and energy poverty facing our people. In my constituency, the most pervasive reports of energy poverty come from disadvantaged communities in the south inner city, Ringsend and Irishtown. There is also the renter in Sandymount who correctly pointed out to me that he is powerless to improve the energy efficiency of his home, as the SEAI grants do not extend to him, and they cover less than 20% of the cost. Two restaurant owners I met with in Rathmines recounted to me the huge impact of rising energy costs on their ability to run their kitchens or afford their ingredients, and an elderly constituent in Ballsbridge, who rightly said that not everyone in Dublin 2, 4 or 6 is posh and well off, is very concerned that the fuel allowance will not keep up with the inflation of the highest energy prices in the EU.

The overture from the Government often is - I am sure it will be today - that there is a significant energy security problem in Ireland. I could not agree more but that was a problem 20 years ago, when the Taoiseach was first at Cabinet and the State owned 96% of the capacity in this country, as the motion details. It is still a problem today, where the private market owns 73% of the capacity. Where is the urgency to introduce the major structural changes required to tap renewable energy in one of the countries most rich in it? Not only do we have offshore wind energy farms lying vacant all along our coast, but we also have ones like the foreknown Sceirde Rocks project in Connemara being cancelled earlier this year, with no replacement.

As an island nation, we have huge opportunities in tidal energy and minuscule funding to pursue it. A constituent asked me recently why there is not a solar farm on the top of every Government and public building, as the EU promised to fund and complete by the end of this year. Another asked me why we do not have 100%-funded retrofitting schemes like they have in Italy.

There is a better way. The Social Democrats, in the general election, proposed the most significant climate fund of nearly any other party, one that would cover the country in 500,000 solar panels, bringing down energy prices by an estimated 40%. My deputy party leader revealed at the weekend that the €3.3 billion in one-off energy payments over the last number of years could have supplied electricity to 1 million homes if it had been used to build renewable energy projects instead. We would still have had money left over to fund supports for the most vulnerable.

This discussion on energy credits and emergency supports is welcome but until we have a Government that is serious about creating structural changes in our climate and economic systems, we will have more motions and debates like this one, and the Irish people will still be left in the cold wind that was never harnessed.

Séamus Healy (Tipperary South, Independent)
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I welcome this motion being brought forward by Sinn Féin. It is a timely motion due to the time of the year and the upcoming budget. It is important to continue to focus on the cost-of-living crisis, a crisis that is pushing more and more families towards poverty.

I want to share with the Minister of State a very sad and disturbing story of a family in particular difficulty relating to energy costs. The family, who are in my constituency, contacted me recently and asked that I come to visit them as they were not in a position to come to see me. I called yesterday and met a lovely couple under severe mental and financial pressure. They have three dependent children. Two are twin boys, both with additional needs. They are aged 14 years and were born after 28 weeks' gestation. One boy attends secondary school and with support is doing well. The other boy, Alex, is profoundly affected and has complex needs. His conditions include spastic quadriplegia, cerebral palsy, uncontrolled epilepsy, obstructive sleep apnoea, tracheostomy, dystonia, autonomic dysfunction, urinary retention and catheterisation. Alex became quite unwell in March 2023 and had a prolonged admission to intensive care in Temple Street hospital here in Dublin. He spent nine months there. Thankfully, he came home in 2023. He has been home now for two years in his bedroom, which for all intents and purposes is an intensive care unit. Alex needs full-time nursing care and requires two trained personnel with him at all times. His parents are trained in his care needs. He has two support nurses, and LauraLynn has provided two trained staff to support him. The couple is very appreciative of the nursing and LauraLynn support, and without that support, Alex would not be able to stay at home. He is reliant on medical equipment at all times, and the following list of equipment must be plugged in at all times: an electric bed; a ventilator, with 24-hour operation; a suction machine; a cough assist machine; a feeding machine; an oxygen saturation monitor; and a fan, hoist, shower trolley, oxygen concentrator and nebuliser.

The family is heartbroken now. Alex is in respiratory failure and palliative care is required and has commenced. As the Minister of State can appreciate, there are significant costs involved in looking after Alex, not least the cost of electricity. That cost, for Alex alone, is €200 per month. The husband has had to leave his job to look after Alex, and even with a payment plan with the electricity supplier, the family are in arrears through no fault of their own. In recent times, they were threatened with disconnection. The Minister of State can imagine the pressure this family is under.

They feel that their plight and the plight of other families like theirs is not understood by politicians like us. They have said they would welcome a visit from the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and the Minister for Health to acquaint them with the various difficulties they face on a daily basis. A funding scheme needs to be put in place to cover energy costs - electricity and gas - for this family and for families in similar circumstances. I ask the Minister of State to consider this suggestion favourably and as a matter of urgency.

Brian Stanley (Laois, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to speak on this important issue. We are facing into the dark, cold months of winter in circumstances where families, households and workers are going to be hit with increases in the local property tax, fuel costs for transport, student fees, insurance, rent and food. The list goes on. In the past week, four energy companies announced that they are hiking their prices. Energy prices used to go up by 1%, 2% or 3%. Most of us remember that. Now it is 9%, 11%, 12%, 13% and so on. That is the way it goes. Energia is going to increase its prices by 12%, Bord Gais's prices will go up by 13% and Pinergy is putting up its prices by 9%. We have some of the highest electricity prices in Europe. More than 500,000 customers are going to be hit with these increases in the next couple of weeks. Many of them do not have the additional money needed to meet these increases. We already have a record number of people in arrears. It is only in September, and they are still getting bills for the summer months. This is the important issue.

The Government has decided to withdraw energy credits and supports in the upcoming budget, yet it had no problem giving these last year. Millionaires got them. All of us in this House got them. That was absolute insanity. I cannot but reach the conclusion that the Government was trying to buy the election. Helicopter money was falling out of the sky and into households. This year, however, families like that mentioned by my colleague Deputy Healy, disabled people, the elderly and low-paid workers who do not have access to the free fuel scheme or whatever need help. It is the Government's job to try to protect people. Energy companies are price gouging. We know that because of the huge profits they are making. We have among the highest electricity prices in the European Union. Wholesale prices for electricity have dropped by over 70% in the past three years, but costs continue to increase. it is pure profiteering. Over 300,000 households are unable to pay their bills. The Government has also committed to increasing carbon tax, thereby heaping more costs on people.

The PSO levy must be restructured. At the moment, the public are subsidising large companies and data centres when it comes to energy costs. Data centres must start paying their fair share and carry the burden for their responsibilities, rather than having domestic customers do it for them. The PSO levy, at €3.23 per month plus VAT, needs to be restructured. It will change again at the end of September, and it is time for it to be reformed.

I am a supporter of wind energy and of solar, biogas, hydrogen and hydro energy. We need to use all the renewable sources we have. According to the answer to a parliamentary question I tabled received, over the past five years €549 million has been given to private companies developing wind farms. In some years, there was a negative. However, the balance works out at a positive of €549 million. The companies involved are highly profitable. We were told that when we had wind energy and renewable energy, particularly wind energy, it would be a lot cheaper. That has not turned out to be the case. It has turned out to be very expensive. Those companies are being allowed to price gouge. The Government is also providing them with support to set up their operations. In the meantime, the cost of energy, which we were promised would go down with the advent of wind energy, is skyrocketing. The Government needs to explain that.

A previous speaker referred to a very important matter in the context of to who owns this energy. If I heard the previous speaker correctly, he quoted that over 90% used to be owned by the public. That has been flipped on its head, and 75% is owned by large corporations over which we have no control. The Government has no control over them and has allowed this to happen deliberately on foot of laissez-faire policies and liberal economics. It is real Trumpian stuff. The Government might give out about Trump, but it is copying what he is doing economically and handing over key industries to large companies that are leading us on a merry dance and absolutely ripping off the taxpayer.

A number of decades ago, people were reasonably well-off if they had a car and could afford to take one holiday a year. People now cannot put bread on the table. I outlined seven or eight increases that are being introduced. The fuel allowance kicks in this week, and I welcome that. However, it needs to be expanded and targeted better. We must make sure that we help those who most need it in the upcoming budget. There must be an energy credit of at least €400 this year to assist people. If energy prices are allowed to continue to rise before the budget, what will it be like after the budget when the Government heaps on its extra costs? People tell me they are really struggling with supermarket prices and all of the other matters I outlined. The Government is leading people into debt and leaving it to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, the Salvation Army and other charities to sort the matter out. The Government is loading it onto the charities and thanking them for their work. That is not good enough. We need a more sustainable way of dealing with this.

I welcome the fact that retrofitting is happening, but it needs to happen quicker. Some of the schemes need to be changed because the upfront costs for people are just too high. Most middle- and low-income workers cannot come up with €25,000, €30,000 or €35,000 to pay for their part of the work. They cannot take out an extra loan on top of their mortgage because it is just not possible for them to do so. We need to examine that matter. I would appeal to the Minister of State to do something about it in the budget. We also need to ensure that windows and doors are included in the retrofitting programme. A great deal of heat is being lost through windows and doors and is not being contained within houses. Many low-income households that are not in the social housing category, namely people who live in private houses but who are cash poor, may own their houses but they do not have the money to retrofit them.

We are facing into the dark, cold winter evenings. Householders, particularly the lower paid, the disabled and other groups, need help. I appeal to the Minister of State not to pass over them in the budget. The Government does not have to buy an election this year. I ask that it not forget those people.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)
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I would like the Minister of State's full attention for this. This is not a laughing matter, I am afraid. Crecora Mills installed a 400 kW solar farm in July 2023. It produces 20% of the power to run the mill. The company applied to the ESB to sell the excess power to the grid at that time. It took the ESB two years to process the application and it is looking for €3.8 million from Crecora Mills to upgrade the substation in west Limerick in order to allow the company to sell its clean energy to the grid. We are talking about an energy crisis, and the ESB is looking for €3.8 million. During the first part of the meeting on the matter, the ESB looked for €1 million. Ten minutes later, it was seeking €1.5 million. When Crecora Mills asked for that in writing, the ESB went up to €2 million. Now it is asking for €3.8 million. How can the Minister of State sit over there knowing that this is happening in respect of solar farms throughout the country?

I am in favour of wind energy in circumstances where the health implications are taken into account. I am for solar energy because it can have a dual use. In fact, it can have a triple use. If solar farms are located a certain distance apart, sheep can graze underneath them and you can get the fodder from between them, such as round bale silage that can be used for fodder. There is a triple use. ESB Networks is charging €3.8 million to a company to supply green energy in order to bring down electricity costs and nothing is being done about it.

Representatives of Crecora Mills met two representatives, one from Fine Gael and the other from Fianna Fáil, in County Limerick and they have done nothing. What is the Minister of State going to do about it? The Government is roaring about green energy. When is it going to take the ESB to task? It costs €50 per MWh to produce power. The Government capped costs at €120. The ESB is making money hand over fist from electricity. Why is that the case? It is because the Government imposed the cap of €120 per MWh, which has allowed the ESB to make such profits.

If electricity is produced through the use fossil fuels, higher tariffs are charged. The ESB includes a reference stating that 70% of your bill is from green energy but it charges the tariffs relating to fossil fuels. Now we have the likes of Crecora Mills. Not only that, there was a place in Ballyhea that did the same thing two years ago and the ESB looked for €1 million to provide clean energy. We need something done about this quickly.

Michael Collins (Cork South-West, Independent Ireland Party)
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Once again, I speak on the behalf of people who are being crushed under the weight of soaring energy costs. Once again, I am forced to say that the Government is asleep at the wheel. There will be no energy credits this year. Why is that the case? It is because there is no election. That is the reality. The Government conned the electorate last year. That was how it bought votes. There is now no election. When votes are needed, credits appear. When they are not, families are left to fend for themselves. That is not leadership; it is political convenience.

Energy costs affect every single person in this country, including children in cold classrooms, working families who are choosing between heating and paying for groceries, sick people who need warmth, elderly citizens on fixed incomes and small businesses that are trying to survive. While they struggle, energy companies are posting massive profits. What is the Government doing? Nothing. There has been no accountability, pressure or reform. I have repeatedly called for action. I have asked for transparency. I demanded that these companies be held to account. All I have received are vague statements and empty acknowledgements. People deserve better.

I will share some of the figures relating to the profits of energy companies. Bord Gáis Energy had an operating profit of €75 million in 2024. The ESB's after-tax profit for 2024 was €706 million. Energia's pre-tax profit for 2024 was €154 million. Those are astonishing figures. Nobody is willing to say they will stand by the people and businesses that are going under as the result of increasing and massive pressure. The Minister of State's job is to represent the public; it is not to defend the profit margins of energy providers. He must act now by capping prices, reforming the market and delivering real support. If he will not stand up for the people, he is not fit to sit in his seat. That is the bottom line.

We met representatives of the Irish Hairdressers Federation today. They are under immense pressure. The same is true of cafes around the country. We spoke about households. People who own restaurants, cafes and businesses like that are telling me they are going out of business. If they get a reduction in the rate of from 13% to 9%, it will be soaked up. The savings will not go back to the customer or come off prices because of the energy costs that people are paying.

Ken O'Flynn (Cork North-Central, Independent Ireland Party)
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Over the summer, my colleagues and I met with people, including, as Deputy Collins mentioned, hairdressers, cafe owners, takeaway operators, vintners, restaurateurs, proprietors of hardware shops and other mom and pop businesses. These are homegrown businesses, some of which have been in operation for 80 or 90 years. These are generational family businesses. Many people involved in such businesses are telling us they may not last until Christmas or may not get over Christmas. They are hoping for a bumper December, almost a Christmas miracle, to stay in business.

We spoke to hairdressers today who cannot cut their energy costs because they must have hot water and electricity to turn the lights on and operate their appliances. On the other hand, they cannot move their prices to reflect the extra cost because they will price themselves out of the market. That is particular true when you consider the black-market economy when it comes to hairdressing. That must be addressed. The Government is not listening to people. It needs to move to the 9% VAT rate from 1 January to help those types of businesses.

There are people in this country, as colleagues have said, who are faced with the choice between eating and heating. Did we ever think we would see a day again when the choice between eating and heating was faced by people in this country? It is going back to the 1930s and 1940s of starving Ireland. It is ridiculous. The Government comes out to say it will put a plan in place and that we are one of the wealthiest countries in Europe. It tells us how well the economy is going. For many people, that may be true. For most of the people I meet in Cork North-Central, it is not true. It is tough for people at the moment. It is tough to select what to cut and what to pay for today. People must ask which bill to ignore until next month. The biggest fear of the Irish people is often the should of the postman's knock and the bill that will arrive through the door. Many families are telling me in my constituency office that if something goes wrong, if there is one little cost, if the young fellow or the young one has to go to hospital or there are braces to be bought, they do not know how they are going to survive. That is not good enough.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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I agree with Deputy O'Flynn. I talk to people who say they are a timing belt issue away from not being able to pay their bills. They tell me that if something goes wrong in their lives, they will be on the edge. People are lying awake at night wondering what bills they will be able to pay. That is an incredible situation.

The frustration I have is that the Government is acting like the cost-of-living crisis is nearly over. The Government is the main driver of that crisis. We often hear it blame foreign elements for the crisis. Let us consider fuel and energy in particular. Last year, the Government took €4.1 billion in fuel taxes. It was the biggest take in fuel taxes in the history of the State. The Government took more money than ever before in fuel taxes from people who are in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis. What does that say about the Government? Last year, the Government took €1 billion in carbon taxes. They are now the second biggest tax on fuel in the country. My real frustration is that TDs on all sides are wringing their hands and saying how difficult and terrible the situation is, but the Government is jacking up the taxes on fuel that are putting people into debt in a cost-of-living crisis. It is not just the case that carbon taxes are where they are at the moment. The Government will raise carbon taxes in budget 2025. It will do so again in 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029 and 2030. It has already locked in increases in carbon taxes on fuel for the next five years irrespective of whether people will be able to pay them, of where people will be at economically and of whether or not they will be in a cost-of-living crisis. How bananas and dangerous is it for a Government to lock in a tax five years in advance without knowing what condition people will be in at that stage?

The Government is ratcheting up costs during a cost-of-living crisis. That is having an effect on people. Hundreds of thousands of people are living in poverty in this country. One quarter of all domestic gas users are in arrears, which equates to 180,000 families. Some 300,000 people are in electricity arrears. Ireland has the second highest rate of rent and mortgage arrears in the EU. It is incredible that the price of electricity is either the highest or second highest in Europe, depending on which day of the week it is, and yet a semi-State body, the ESB, is enormously profitable. A Government that gives a semi-State body the mandate to make €800 million in profits during a cost-of-living crisis when so many people are in arrears does not give a tuppenny damn about the state people are in.

Actually, there was €700 million made in profit last year. Incredibly, during Storm Éowyn, when people were begging the Government for food and trying to get energy infrastructure back up and running to get their houses reconnected, the ESB’s suggestion was that they should pay for the fixes themselves. This from a semi-State that was making so much money. The Government is talking out of both sides of its mouth, offering tea and sympathy to people while pilfering their pockets with extra taxes every year.

Carol Nolan (Offaly, Independent)
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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.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about the energy crisis. I thank Sinn Féin for giving it to us.

What I have to say I have said several times before. Since Bord na Móna was closed down by the previous Government in 2020, the cost of electricity has gone up day by day. That is a fact. In the past week or two, different energy companies have been raising their prices by 10%, 12% and 13%. Then we hear that one company has brought down the price by 4%. No one knows what is going on. Does the Government know? We were supposed to have an energy regulator, but there is no account in the world of him. I am asking the Government to bring that fellow and whatever team he has to task because they are not playing their part.

Social houses that are built now do not have any chimneys, meaning people are totally reliant on electricity. Many of these people are not able to pay their way, and many thousands are behind in the payment of their electricity bills. I ask the Government to look into this and the energy regulator to do something about it. Where individuals build their own houses, the banks are stopping them from putting in chimneys or having solid fuel heating because they want the energy rating as high as possible. Chimneys always let bad air out and good air in. The different approach is hurting people in many ways and it is ridiculous.

Elderly people applying for the energy grant to upgrade their homes have been told by the SEAI, including this week, that they will have to wait for at least two years. Can you imagine what two years is to someone in their late 70s or early 80s? It is like being told it will never happen in their lifetime. They worry more at that age, and it is not fair. When the Government says money it is collecting – including through the carbon tax, which I totally have opposed over the terms of the past two Governments or since I came up here the first day - is being put into the SEAI and being used to heat homes, I say to it that it is not reaching the people at all. It is taking too long to come to them. It is not fair to have them waiting two or two and a half years.

Small businesses are closing day by day. Eenergy costs are the main reason for this. Those businesses cannot bear the burden of the cost any more. They are totally reliant on electricity and gas. Then we hear that Ireland cannot purchase gas on the open market when it is cheapest. The Minister of State should listen to this because it is very important. We should be able to store any amount of natural gas in the Kinsale gas field. It is not being utilised at all. We are being told we have to purchase the gas when we need it, whatever the price. That is not right. I ask the Minister of State to consider this in order to determine whether we can store gas when it can be bought cheaply, not operate the way we are operating at the moment whereby we have to buy when we need it, regardless of the price. It is ultimately the customer who has to pay for it.

Old people are struggling to keep their homes warm. Families with children have to be kept warm and people are fearful about the cost of electricity. Every man and woman on the road is suffering because of the cost of fuel owing to the carbon tax.

Michael Cahill (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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Irish householders are facing a winter of increased fuel prices following recent announcements by energy suppliers of price increases, despite the companies involved already having made significant profits. I cannot understand how these increases can be justified in light of soaring profits. It seems to be just another instance of women and men at the side of the street being milked to create corporate profits for large institutions. What can be done to control these ravenous profit mongers that are operating like the highwaymen of old? Ordinary people, especially the elderly, just have to hand over their hard-earned income if they are to keep warm and cook food in their homes. It is scandalous that there appears to be no control over the actions of these entities and no comeback for ordinary people.

I am delighted that the distribution of the fuel allowance will begin this week. That will be a big help for some but many more citizens will look helplessly at their depleting funds, which have already been impacted by large increases in the cost of groceries, car fuel, etc.

We must help those people to survive. Yes, survive because that is all that many people are doing, particularly those on middle and lower incomes.

The Government must not alone help and support our struggling citizens. We must also find ways to ensure that corporate greed does not consume our nation. All this comes on top of the big push to cut out the use of fossil fuels, which were a great help to the hard-working small farmers who could, by their labours, save a bank of turf to help heat their homes and families. We must find a better way to both protect our environment and allow our people to live in some small comfort in a heated home. I ask that we do this initially by way of financial support and then by bringing in controls of conglomerates that appear to be a rule all to themselves.

Alan Dillon (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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I thank all the Deputies for raising these important matters and allowing time to discuss them. I also welcome the opportunity to discuss the pressures Irish householders are facing as a result of high energy costs and the actions the Government is taking in response.

The pressures placed on households and businesses by high energy costs remain a deep concern for the Government. Providing supports to alleviate these pressures remains a top priority. Extensive work has and will continue to be undertaken right across government to address these challenges. The programme for Government acknowledges these pressures and commits to bringing forward measures to help contain these costs. Ireland faces particular challenges in relation to energy costs as a result of long-standing factors, including our isolated island location, low levels of interconnection, our widely dispersed population and our historical reliance on fossil fuels. In particular, our reliance on gas for electricity generation is a major determinant of higher energy prices. Many Deputies failed to acknowledge that the electricity and gas retail markets in Ireland operate under a European regulatory framework and prices are set by suppliers as commercial decisions. However, the Minister, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, has written to all the energy suppliers and will meet them shortly in regard to the increased prices over the past number of weeks.

Ultimately, as a Government, the best long-term approach for Ireland is to insulate consumers from volatility on international wholesale energy markets. That will continue to be our prime objective through investing in renewable energy generation, improving our energy efficiency, expanding electricity interconnection with neighbouring markets and deepening the internal market in energy. The climate action plan sets out the strategy that is in place to achieve these goals, which support our decarbonisation and climate objective. Cutting our dependence on fossil fuels and generating power from our own renewable sources will ensure a cleaner, cheaper energy future in the long term.

The Government has also committed to continuing with the carbon tax in alignment with recommendations from scientific experts and the Climate Change Advisory Council. This approach encourages a shift away from fossil fuels and ensures those who are most vulnerable receive targeted supports, making that transition to a sustainable future fair and equitable. It is supported by research findings, including an ESRI study finding that recycling revenue raised through carbon taxation would result in a reduction in poverty and leave lower income households better off. Since 2019, we have seen increases in carbon tax that have been ring-fenced so that they go back into the pockets of those on the lowest incomes and are also used to protect the most vulnerable households and communities. These revenues provide vital funding to support those at risk of energy poverty, as well as retrofitting programmes and agri-environmental supports for farmers. In budget 2025, an allocation of €951 million in carbon tax revenue was provided to a range of programmes supporting Ireland's transition to a low-carbon economy. This was an increase of over €163 million on 2024. This Government is redoubling its commitment to a just transition ensuring that our journey to climate neutrality leaves no one behind. This progressive use of carbon tax revenue is an important vehicle for cost sharing and the equity considerations required for this transition.

In terms of the Government's commitment to investing in our critical infrastructure, most recently, we saw that price review, PR, 6 will deliver on the programme for Government's priority to ensure we have the necessary infrastructure to improve our electricity grid. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities, which is the independent regulator, is responsible for PR 6, for which the consultation has now closed. The CRU is considering submissions before publishing its decision, which is expected before the end of the year.

The Government is also investing €3.5 billion in equity in EirGrid and ESB Networks to ensure the required infrastructure programme is delivered. This investment will keep consumer costs down by ensuring both EirGrid and ESB Networks maintain high credit ratings and can borrow at a lower interest rate, thereby lowering the overall cost of investment. Delivering investment in our electricity grid offers one of the fastest means that can impact the overall electricity cost to consumers. While it is a hugely concerning and regrettable position that network tariffs will rise under PR 6, these increases are necessary so that we can invest in and future-proof our electricity grid. Officials within our Department will continue to work in conjunction with the CRU, ESB Networks and EirGrid to ensure we have the delivery of grid projects and see where they can be accelerated, where possible.

The national energy affordability task force has been established by the Government to identify, assess and implement measures that will enhance energy affordability for households and businesses, while delivering key renewable commitments and protecting security of supply and economic stability. This will be a very important element of the Government's work to improve both our competitiveness and complement the action plan on competitiveness and productivity. A key output of the task force's work will be to deliver an energy affordability action plan that will identify a comprehensive range of solutions, including measures targeting households and energy poverty.

In recent years, the Government has demonstrated its commitment to supporting householders to meet energy costs both with the most recent energy credits but also on targeted social welfare payments. We will continue to reaffirm this commitment through the programme for Government and the energy affordability task force, as well as our commitment to investing in key infrastructure projects necessary to facilitate a more clean and just energy transition. We will support that, again, through further consideration in budget 2026.

I again thank all the Deputies for their input on this important matter.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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Families from all backgrounds are struggling. I meet people all the time, especially in my clinic and when I do my weekly grocery shopping. They tell me they are struggling with the high cost of groceries, the cost of housing and the high cost of utilities, such as electricity and gas. The cost of these utilities is not sustainable for hard-working families. The prices consumers are paying are rip-off prices and, despite the desperate need of citizens, the Government parties fail to take on the energy companies and work for the benefit of consumers. The average annual electricity cost for an Irish household is €1,752 per year. We have 300,000 households in arrears with their electricity bills, with the average arrears at €500. As the colder months approach, it is certain many more people will enter arrears or skip heating their own homes. It would be shameful if that happens.

The decision to liberalise the Irish energy market has led to increased prices for citizens.

It is a political choice not to address this challenge. The parties opposite in government are content to take the energy companies at their word regarding their prices. We in Sinn Féin want to provide the energy regulator with the power and resources to investigate the companies' profits and determine if these prices are simply profit driven. Wholesale energy costs have dropped dramatically in the past three years yet retail prices remain 75% higher than pre-2022 prices.

Ours is an energy market that functions not for families, but one that seems to prioritise the profits of these companies. In the past number of weeks, SSE Airtricity announced an increase in standard variable electricity prices of 9.5%, adding approximately €150 to the average annual bill. Bord Gáis Energy, Energia and Pinergy have all announced similar price increases. Despite this, the Government is determined not to introduce energy credits. We need reform of the energy market and to strengthen the power of the energy regulator to hold these companies to account. We need a focus on affordability and, crucially, transparency within the cartel-like energy market. Families need a break. They need help and the introduction of three energy credits of €150 each goes some way towards aiding them while we work towards holding these energy companies to account.

In the longer term, we must end our reliance on imported energy - 80% of energy is imported. There is significant offshore wind energy potential in Limerick. We have the deep port at Foynes and the potential to improve our electricity grid to make ourselves an energy-independent nation and deliver cheap energy to our people while exporting the excess but as usual, the Government acts at a snail's pace. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have an opportunity to support the constituents by supporting this motion but, unfortunately, I do not think they will do so.

Johnny Mythen (Wexford, Sinn Fein)
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Looking at the energy markets today, it is hard not to see the amount of profiteering and rip-off prices that are fleecing ordinary people in this country. It is not hard to figure out who is doing it. Bord Gáis Energy is increasing its rate by 13.5%, SSE Airtricity by 9.5% with a 12% surcharge, Flogas by 7%, Energia by 12.1% and Pinergy by 9.83%. The ESB made profits of €700 million last year. Energia made an operating profit of €154 million. Shareholders are receiving handsome dividends out of ordinary people's pockets. Most of these companies are owned by outside interests. These hikes will have a significant impact on the lives of millions of people. Some small businesses will go to the wall while it is certain that more and more households will fall into deeper debt and energy poverty.

This issue must be tackled head on and with urgency. The solution is in the Government's hands. We have the highest electricity prices in Europe. This profit bonanza for these energy companies must be challenged and stopped. The Government has the power to increase the mandate of the energy regulator to hold these companies to account and to prevent them from exploiting and manipulating the markets. It also has the power to change the archaic metric measure used to compare one source of energy to another - known as the levellised cost of energy measurement - and replace it with a more modernised comprehensive measurement.

Another thing that can be done is to tackle the planning delays in renewable energy projects, which will help reduce costs. The Government can make sure that high energy users such as high-tech data centres pay their fair share instead of being subsidised by ordinary householders. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have said they will not introduce a cost-of-living package regarding energy credits during a cost-of-living crisis when people are finding it extremely difficult to get by on a weekly basis and pay their energy bills, during a homelessness crisis with over 5,000 children in shelters and bed and breakfasts, and when small businesses in rural Ireland see their livelihoods slipping away due to high energy costs and fuel hikes. This is the time to support the people. With billions of euro in surplus, there is no excuse for not looking after the elderly and the hard-working people of this country. It is time to step up to the plate and support this motion.

Louise O'Reilly (Dublin Fingal West, Sinn Fein)
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I start by thanking my colleague an Teachta Pa Daly for this motion and for all of his work on this issue. That we continue to put forward constructive solutions to the crisis caused by this Government is a great credit to my colleagues.

As the dark evenings draw in and it starts to get colder, it is important that we turn our attention to the reality of what is happening in homes across the State. For this Government, the cost-of-living crisis is only something it trots out and acknowledges in the run up to an election. With no election on the horizon, we see fuel taxes going up, college fees going up and energy prices increasing. In the run up to the election, energy credits were very important. Today, the election is behind us but the cost-of-living crisis is not, yet the Government tells us there will be no cost-of-living package. A total of 300,000 households are in arrears with their electricity bills while 175,000 are in arrears with their gas bills. Believe me, they have been to the community welfare officer and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul but still they are facing into a very cold winter and they are already in arrears. They have built up those arrears when the sun was shining. They are facing into winter in arrears.

I see it every day in north County Dublin in my office in Balbriggan and in my clinics. People cannot understand why, on the one hand, the Government is telling them they have never had it so good - we heard that this afternoon - and, in the same breath, it is telling them that it will not help them to stay warm this winter. People are not stupid. They know they are paying what are among the highest energy prices in Europe. They see and know that the Government can help. They see, as do I, older people who are affected. I am thinking in particular of a man who, when it is cold, sits in the library in Balbriggan. I see him in the window and it breaks my heart. I know from talking to him that he is mortified at the indignity of not being able to heat his own home. To be indifferent to that and to turn its face against that man in the library trying to stay warm is a fairly damning indictment of this Government. I will tell him the next time I see him that the Minister is going to write a letter to the energy companies. I am sure he will be very heartened.

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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The response of the Government in this amendment is vague in places and downright inaccurate in others. The amendment is an insult to the millions of ordinary workers and families who are bracing for another round of energy hikes and to the hundreds of thousands of households that are falling further behind on their energy bills with each passing month and many more who are barely scraping by. I am disappointed but not surprised that Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Lowry-led regional independents are choosing to prioritise the profits of energy companies and the demand of data centres over the needs of workers and families. Ordinary people are being fleeced by the energy companies while the Government stands idly by.

Judging by the amendment, the Government seems to think it is inevitable that Ireland will have the highest electricity prices in Europe and that households will simply just have to grin and bear it. With one in five children living in poverty, it is totally unacceptable but the problem is not intractable. It is a matter of political choice. Sinn Féin's proposals provided the Government with the answers but it is clear that it is not prepared to listen. The energy task force that has been referenced is nothing more than a smokescreen for the fact that the Government does not have a plan or even the intention to end the rip-off for good. It was stated that the task force, which was set up in June, was not finalising a report but was instead working to finalise the preparation of an interim report. That does not sound like urgency to me with the winter coming in and the price hikes we have seen. The task force members' predecessors had a steering group. It achieved nothing. Ordinary people do not need another round of talking shops. They need action and urgency.

The amendment claims that electricity and gas prices have historically been higher here than in other EU states. That is not the case. It implies that we have no choice but to accept energy bills that outstrip our neighbours by over €500. Ireland used to have the lowest electricity prices in Europe. Following the disastrous decision to completely liberalise the Irish energy market, we now have some of the highest electricity prices. As many contributors have pointed out tonight, this is a political choice but does the Minister of State know what is regrettable, given that the amendment talks about how regrettable the network charge rise is? Households are expected to shoulder a disproportionate burden while data centres do not have to pay their fair share. It is time for the Minister of State to stand up. Ordinary people are stretched way beyond their means. They need more than this. The Government must stop rolling out the red carpet for data centres. They must not be allowed to drive up energy prices any further. Ordinary people must be protected and energy affordability has to be the priority for the Government rather than an afterthought. It is time to end the rip-off.

Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael)
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In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time on Wednesday, 24 September 2025.