Pauline O'Reilly (Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The Minister is welcome. I thank the Fianna Fáil Senators for tabling this important motion. When it comes to energy, we need to do three things. One of the most important of those in some ways, and the most immediately important for the people of Ireland, is to deal with the issue of cost. We must be very clear with people that the cost of energy is not related to energy security. Those two issues have to be decoupled when we discuss the motion and the matters raised by Senator McDowell, which I will come back to. The third important issue is the climate crisis, which is not going away. We have to follow the climate action plan because the things we do to address the climate crisis are the things that can help us with the other two issues, namely, bringing down the cost for everyone - not immediately, which is why we will put a whole suite of measures in place in this budget and have in fact done so over the past year to the tune of €2.4 billion - and, critically, the issue of energy security.

I am not trying to target Senator McDowell on this, but he happened to speak not long before me. There is no point in talking about where energy security was 15 years ago. When Wind Energy Ireland representatives appeared before the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action, they spoke about how offshore, floating, renewable energy was pie in the sky 18 months previously. It was just an idea and a notion. It was not something they could see being delivered as quickly as it can be now. Likewise, hydrogen is something we are now talking about and seeing delivery of. Aberdeen has a hydrogen hub that is being used for services there. It is quite correct that we should put investment into sustainable energy and a secure energy future. Gas and fossil fuels are not that. The 80 GW off the coast of Ireland are what is secure. We know that any amount of exploration off the coast has found relatively small pockets of fossil fuels. We can choose to keep on going down that same trajectory, enforcing on the Irish people a lack of energy security and rising prices, or we can choose to continue with the plan, which has already in the term of this Government seen 3 GW contracted for offshore renewable energy. That is what will bring us out of this. It is very important to point that out to people.

I note the amendment tabled by Sinn Féin. It is important to point out that the plan it refers to is about putting a price cap on energy prices, but it does not deal with the cost of energy. One way or the other the Irish people will pay, whether it is through their bills or debt, which the UK is looking down the barrel of. Sinn Féin's plan is a bailout of energy giants. It puts money in the pockets of fossil fuel elites in Russia and right around the globe because an energy cap will guarantee energy company customers will only have to pay a certain amount, those companies can charge what they want and we will just keep on shovelling money into them. The approach we take is that we will support the most vulnerable, that we will also provide support universally for everyone because everybody is suffering right now and, crucially, that we will work within the European Union. It is important to do that to ensure we have what people here call a windfall tax but ensures we take money from the energy companies and put that money back into countries so they can support their people. That is the honest way to do it to get the people and the companies who are making the most to pay for it. When it comes down to price caps, those with larger houses, the richest people in the country, are the ones who will benefit more than the poorest. This is why I agree with Fianna Fáil Senators that we ensure to the greatest extent possible that measures are focused on those who need them most.

Let us look at what we have done since January and since the previous budget. This includes: a fuel allowance increase of more than 50%, or €1,139 compared to €735 in the previous year; an emergency electricity credit and if reports are to be believed, we will now see several more of those credits; an excise duty reduction; a VAT reduction to 9% on all electricity and gas bills from May until October; a working family payment increase of €10 in the previous budget; back to school clothing and footwear allowances; and a 20% reduction in public transport fees and a 50% reduction in those fees for young people. These are measures that are targeted and that matter to people. Let us do more of that. Let us not talk about giving money to companies that are profiting. The other point, and this is where the two issues cross over, is the more and the longer we give money to these companies and fossil fuel elites around the globe, the longer we will see fossil fuel companies instead of seeing investment in renewables, which is the only thing that will ultimately lead us out of this.

I ask Sinn Féin to look again at this incredibly flawed policy. I hope it is just a flaw and not just populist because we have to be honest with people. These are difficult times. We are in the middle of a war. That war is what is creating these price hikes for people. We are asking people to play into the hands of Putin by speaking about an energy cap as if that is the way out; it is not. It is leading to more problems for Ukraine and Ireland.