I thank Sinn Féin for bringing this timely motion forward. As we saw at the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, the cost of energy and fuel has skyrocketed in the weeks since Trump and Netanyahu’s bloody misadventure in the Middle East began. Never ones to waste a crisis, whether at the garage forecourt or in our home heating tanks, fuel providers here saw an opportunity for profit and they went for it. Prices changed not by the day, but by the hour. On top of an already crippling cost-of-living crisis, working people are struggling to cope. No action is not an option. Unfortunately, that is all we have got from this Government so far. I heard the Tánaiste’s comments earlier that action will be taken in the coming days, which I welcome. The Labour Party has called on the Government to release part of our 90-day petroleum reserves as part of a range of cost-cutting measures to protect people from the immediate price shock, a measure the International Energy Agency, IEA, has subsequently proposed and endorsed. The Opposition is united in wanting to support the most vulnerable in our society who are suffering from energy poverty. We can and must protect people in ways that are both environmentally and fiscally responsible. The Labour Party will not attack the carbon tax, however. There are other ways to crack this nut, which I will get into a little later.

Sentiment score: 0.07

The surge in fuel prices triggered by instability in the Middle East is a stark reminder of just how exposed Irish households remain to global shocks. How did we get to this point? First, unfortunately, there seems to be a lack of strategic planning. The Government has reacted far too slowly to a rapidly escalating problem and the crisis seems to be getting ahead of it. This is our second energy crisis in four years. How are we being price gouged again? How have we allowed ourselves to be caught by surprise? Second, it comes back to our overdependence on unreliable, intermittent, imported fossil fuels. We are overexposed in this country, even compared with our European neighbours, when it comes to the amount of fossil fuels we continue to import. This crisis should serve as a reminder to the Government – not that it should need one - of the urgency with which we need to transition our economy away from its reliance on fossil fuels and towards clean, indigenous, renewable energy. Wind energy produced off the Irish coast will not get stuck in the Strait of Hormuz. The inertia from the Government in building up our offshore capacity can no longer be tolerated. It leaves us vulnerable to an increasingly unstable geopolitical arena, and it is ordinary households that pay the price. The only urgency we have seen from the Government, from an energy perspective, is to rush through legislation to build new fossil fuel infrastructure. Yesterday, we saw Donald Trump trying to bully our Taoiseach into buying American liquefied natural gas, LNG. We cannot bend the knee and expose ourselves to further risks arising out of global instability and fuel shocks. We are already overexposed to US interests when it comes to our corporation tax receipts. We cannot allow ourselves to become reliant on the US for our energy needs as well. In any case, the European benchmark price of LNG has, as of today, soared by around 60% since Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war on Iran commenced. I hope this latest crisis in the fuel market gives the Government pause for thought on its plans for a new LNG terminal that would see us importing highly polluting fracked gas and leave us further exposed to these kinds of shocks. People are feeling this energy crisis in their pockets right now, and we need to see action from the Government on this now. We can use the social welfare system and taxation to deliver help where it is most needed. As well as an additional four weeks of fuel allowance, we would like to see a double social welfare payment and targeted income energy credits of €400 to support households with incomes of less than €80,000. This type of intervention is needed to ensure we do not add to the 320,000 families who are already struggling to pay their energy bills. This needs to be addressed urgently, as does the behaviour of energy suppliers. Both at the forecourt and with home heating oil, there has been clear and significant price gouging in the days immediately after the start of the Iran war. The Government has powers to investigate price gouging and anti-competitive behaviour in energy markets, and those investigations must happen and any wrongdoing must be dealt with decisively. As we all know, however, investigations take time and people cannot wait while their heating bills continue to rise. That is why we need to see the Government bring forward supports sooner rather than later. The Labour Party has already called on the Government to use maximum price orders to tie the cost of home heating oil to what it actually costs suppliers. Ministers can set a maximum price on home heating oil today. We know other countries have already done this. Unfortunately, what we have seen is the usual cycle whenever a crisis falls at this Government’s feet. First, there is paralysis. Second, there is dithering. Third, there is a cobbled-together piece of PR that does not address the problem. We are possibly in the middle of that process now, at the advanced dithering stage, with the promise of some kind of plan next week, we hope. The price of petrol and diesel has neared or surpassed €2 per litre. The average cost of 500 litres of home heating oil has rocketed from €498 to €870. These are only the average prices and there are individual cases around the country where we have seen much higher and more dramatic hikes. The giant companies that provide us with oil and gas products that heat our homes or fuel our cars are quick to respond to a crisis and turn it into an opportunity. This Government has lacked the required urgency and seems to be playing catch-up. Who gets caught in the middle of this thirst for profit from the private sector and the inertia from the State? It is the hardworking families across the country who just keep paying more and more to live their daily lives. We must urgently move away from our over-reliance on fossil fuels. The Government must abandon its plans for a new LNG terminal and show the same urgency in developing renewable infrastructure and supporting households to decarbonise as it has for importing more fossil fuels from America.

Sentiment score: -0.02