Yesterday the Taoiseach told working people and families struggling to get by to wait until next year's budget. He might help them then or he might not - wait and see. That was his message. The consequences of that indifference were exposed yesterday. While the Taoiseach downplayed the pressure on households, the regulator released startling figures. The number of households behind on their electricity bills has shot up again. Listen to this. Some 316,838 households were behind on their electricity bill in February. That is frightening. More than half of these households are in debt for over 90 days and the number is growing. More and more households find it harder to pay their electricity bill, find it harder to get back on track and the fear of disconnection is real. As a matter of fact, 197 households have already been disconnected this year. Many are forced to switch to pay-as-you-go meters where they end up paying the most expensive tariffs and bills. These are families who do everything and are desperate to keep up but they just find themselves in awful situations and the Taoiseach's Government – Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael – simply shrugs its shoulders. The crisis did not fall out of the sky. The Taoiseach knows it has been getting worse, so how can he not accept the need for an emergency budget? How can he not see the need for energy credits? Last October, we told him that cancelling energy credits in his budget was a terrible decision. The regulator warned him that even more households would struggle to pay their bills as a result of his decision but the Taoiseach ignored those warnings. He withdrew the credits anyway and he left households terribly exposed. He stood idly by as big energy companies, one after the other, hiked their electricity prices up and up and now his energy Minister tells people to brace themselves for even further electricity price increases. There are households in arrears, sky-high prices, fear of disconnection and more price hikes to come. Today’s CSO report makes clear that people cannot wait until next year’s budget. It tells them what they already knew - that the cost of living is getting worse. Food prices and energy prices are up and pressure on families has increased and the Taoiseach, Micheál Martin, sits back and watches. The damage and hardship caused by withdrawing energy credits is plain to see but he does not listen. He does not recognise that he got it wrong. He does not accept that action is now needed. That is not a real or sustainable response. He needs to stop doubling down. Help is needed. Energy credits are urgent. Ní féidir leis na céadta mílte daoine a mbillí leictreachais a íoc ach fós tá Fianna Fáil agus Fine Gael ag diúltú gníomhú. Tá cabhair ag teastáil ó dhaoine láithreach. Tá cáinaisnéis éigeandála ag teastáil anois. Families are now asking how bad things have to get before the Taoiseach wakes up. How many families have to fall behind in their electricity bills before he acts? What is the number? Is the number 400,000? Is it half a million? What number spells crisis for the Taoiseach? For every single one of these households, the crisis is now - it is today. They cannot wait until next year’s budget, so the Taoiseach must act. We need an emergency budget now. Families desperately need energy credits now.
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Yesterday.
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The number of households in arrears that I quoted to the Taoiseach come from February. That predates the Trump-Netanyahu attacks on Iran. That has made matters worse, which I absolutely acknowledge. What the Taoiseach cannot acknowledge is what the regulator and the CSO are telling the Government directly today, namely, that the cost-of-living crisis is getting worse, including for groceries and energy, and families are struggling. I have given the Taoiseach the figures for the level of arrears. They are terrifying. The Government has allocated diddly-squat - sweet feck all - for working families.
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That is the truth and families know it. I put it to you directly that your attitude of sitting back and watching this unfold is not acceptable. We need measures now. One of them is energy credits.
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That matter is absolutely clear.
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Why do you refuse to act to protect workers and families-----
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-----in this situation? You are negligent,-----
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-----not me.
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Family carers are not getting it.
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I am routinely interrupted.
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Oh my God.
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We do.
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They are trapped.
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Works of fiction.
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