Every supermarket shelf, pharmacy stock-room and construction supply chain relies on trucks moving safely and affordably across the country. When haulage costs rise, we all pay the price. Hauliers face extreme cost pressures with volatile fuel costs and rising insurance premiums. They are also struggling with the increasing general cost of living alongside the rest of the country. The Government response has been to offer direct cash payments to haulage and passenger transport operators, with payments ranging from €1,350 per vehicle for small fleets to €300 per vehicle for larger operators, backdated to March and currently time-limited until May at an estimated cost of €120 million. While any support is welcome, the scheme is not enough. It will only provide temporary relief when they actually need certainty and a plan for future-proofing. Probably most important, we have seen from the past month or so that there needs to be strengthening of the dialogue pathways for people. This sector had to bring the country to a standstill to have its concerns taken seriously. Protest is a powerful tool and an important part of any democracy, but it should not have taken this level of disruption for the Government to listen to people and offer them support. I hope the Government takes that lesson and works on it, because the protests demonstrated that a huge swathe of our society feels ignored, let down and left behind. What also came across very strongly to me during the protests was that even people who did not understand the pressures on hauliers or contractors supported the protests because they are also experiencing cost pressures in their own lives. They could empathise because they find themselves in similar circumstances. Although we have these discussions about the hauliers and although the support package is welcome, we cannot proceed in isolation from the fact that many people across our communities are struggling and suffering. We are aware that approximately 317,000 people are in arrears on their electricity bills, many for more than 19 months. These are not people who have mismanaged their finances; they are people who never recovered from the price shocks triggered by global energy crises. Wholesale prices are 72% lower than they were at their peak, in August 2022, but that is not reflected in retail prices. There are serious questions, which I have raised many times, regarding the regulation of the market and the risk of price gouging. Although the Government has asked the regulator to examine this matter, the CRU has yet to produce a report on it and appears to be taking a very slow approach to transparency in the electricity sector. While this happens, people will continue to struggle to make ends meet. At the same time, we are told there will be no emergency budget, no price controls and no price reductions. Instead, we hear about future-focused measures such as home-heating upgrades and low-cost financing for retrofitting. There is a place for these measures. They may be useful in the long term, but they will not do anything for those families who are struggling today and are choosing between heating and eating. The EU has explicitly relaxed State aid rules, allowing targeted price interventions, income supports, tax incentives and even windfall taxes on excess energy profits, yet the Government’s approach is timid. There is no serious push for windfall taxation, no targeted price intervention and absolutely no urgency. The reality is that it took nationwide disruption before action was taken. Even now, the response is reactive rather than planned. This is crisis management; it is not policy. A report published today by the ESRI indicates that 14% of households in 2024 stated that they were unable to afford adequate heating or pay their energy bills in full, and that approximately 30% of households experienced some form of energy affordability challenge. The report states €480 in additional income is needed annually by those affected in order to exit fuel poverty. The Social Democrats have been calling for a targeted payment of €400 in the form of an energy credit for those struggling the most and households earning less than €70,000. This proposal is very closely aligned with the recommendations in the ESRI report. I ask that the Government take another look at our proposal because, if independent experts have produced a report at the request of the Government indicating that roughly €480 is what people need if they are to be lifted out of energy poverty, a targeted €400 credit would go a considerable way towards addressing energy affordability and poverty. This crisis has seriously exposed Ireland’s energy insecurity. Despite increased renewable energy generation in Ireland, Irish householders are not seeing the benefits. Much of our renewable output is being absorbed by large corporate users, including data centres, some of which are paying substantially less for electricity than domestic users. I am not sure how the Government can continue to stand over that. Investment in renewables is flowing but people are not seeing the gains. Instead, families are usually exposed to global shocks while policy decisions are prioritising large energy-intensive users. At the same time, we are sitting on an enormous untapped resource. One million homes in Ireland are suitable for rooftop solar. Just ten panels can save an average household more than €450 per year on electricity bills. That is pretty much the same figure that the ESRI set out as what people would need their electricity bills reduced by annually. This is clearly a very good option or solution. The benefit of solar is that installation can take a matter of hours, not years. You do not need to carry out major works on your house or move out. It is much simpler. Solar represents one of the fastest, simplest ways to reduce energy poverty and improve resilience to energy shocks. However, there are big upfront costs to solar, and it is not affordable to everyone. That is why we in the Social Democrats have launched our plan Solar for All. This plan would double the rate of grants available to all households. It proposes a €1,000 battery grant for all householders. Free solar installation should be provided for households under the warmer homes scheme, including people receiving the disability allowance, carer’s allowance and fuel allowance. We also need to see the rapid deployment of, or the ability to deploy, plug-in solar, which is very common in Germany and which has been introduced in the United Kingdom. These are very simple measures that we have put forward in our plan. They are simple, achievable and very effective. They would make such a huge difference. Imagine if the 300,000 homes that currently receive fuel allowance could save €400 on their electricity bills every year? This really is a no-brainer. I raised this earlier with the Tánaiste and he was very positive about working on a solar plan. Indeed, the relevant Minister, Deputy O’Brien, was similarly positive. I am more than happy to work with them on this. I really believe this is the option that can quickly make a difference in people’s homes. Along with highlighting our energy insecurity, this crisis has highlighted growing vulnerability regarding our food security. Our agriculture sector is deeply exposed to global markets, particularly for fertiliser, fuel and animal feed. We saw this following the invasion of Ukraine, when fertiliser prices surged to record levels, driven by gas shortages and export restrictions. We are now seeing the same thing happen following the ongoing war in the Middle East. Around 30% of fertiliser traded globally travels through the Strait of Hormuz. Fertiliser production is extremely energy-intensive, so when oil and gas prices rise, fertiliser prices rise too. This locks farmers into higher import costs long before any ship is even deployed. These costs do not remain on farms. Since the start of the war in Ukraine, Irish food prices have risen by roughly 9% to 10% overall because farmers need to be paid for the work they do and cannot absorb all the costs arising from fertiliser price increases. While food inflation eased briefly over the past few years, international bodies expect prices will increase by over 30% this year if the disruption persists. Ireland is not a very food-secure country. We import over 80% of the fruit and vegetables we eat. At one point, these imports were of exotic fruits and vegetables that we could not grow in Ireland, but now they include crops that we can and should grow here, such as apples, tomatoes, carrots and onions. We saw a major Irish producer of carrots go into liquidation recently. That sector needs support. We cannot allow it to disappear.

Sentiment score: 0.04