Pa Daly
Kerry · Sinn Féin · Ireland
“I thank the Minister of State for coming in to deal with this issue when other colleagues were not available. She will be able to bring her experience of this area to this debate. I am slightly caught for time, so I will try to parse it a little bit. I wish to ask the Minister of State about the harmful content on social media platforms.”
“While we know violence against women is a crisis and femicide in Ireland is a crisis, it is overwhelmingly men who carry out these acts. These are men of all cultures, races and ethnicities. However, social media giants have a responsibility and are clearly not stepping up to the plate. They are not complying with their obligations.”
“The Digital Services Act was introduced. It was to ensure a safe, predictable and trusted online environment and to prioritise greater activity and online safety. There is the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act 2022 to protect children and the public from harmful and illegal content. There is a danger.”
“We are running over time but I will make one more point. If, as it provides in the Online Safety and Media Regulation Act, we are to protect children and adults from online conduct, how does it look as an example to younger people in particular when this content is still allowed to be there?”
“Somebody even said that they hope these comments are not going to be deleted to suit one's ideology, which they misspelt. That is the kind of narrative that is going on. They are mocking her beliefs and her. It is similar to what is being investigated by the police in Britain.”
“Bhíos ag caint le healaíontóir i gCiarraí níos luaithe um thráthnóna. Labhair sé liom mar gheall ar na mothúcháin a bhaineann le AI. Dúirt sé liom it could help to generate ideas, layouts and content more quickly, leaving more time to focus on strategy and working with clients.”
The complete record
Every one of 864 lines we hold for Pa Daly, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 8 of 18.
“I move amendment No. 5: In page 14, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following: “(4A) In this section, ‘exceptional circumstances’ means circumstances that— (a) arise from a unique and unforeseeable event, or a specific and demonstrable public necessity, (b) cannot reasonably be addressed by compliance with the requirements of the EIA Directive within the timeframe necessary to avert serious risk to human health, safety, the environment or essential public services, and (c) are strictly limited in scope, duration and geographic extent.”
“4 will amend the EPA Act and the Waste Management Act to increase transparency so that the public can access the information regarding the granting of exemptions from an environmental impact assessment. The purpose and the thinking behind it is to facilitate public consultation and mandate the publication of a report to address the issues raised as part of the consultation so that all submissions or observations, which were received under paragraph (d), would be considered and a reasoned report addressing the material issues would be raised.”
“I move amendment No. 4: In page 14, between lines 18 and 19, to insert the following: "(d) publish a notice of the request for an exemption, accompanied by the information provided under subsection (1), on a website maintained by it or on its behalf and in a national newspaper, inviting submissions from the public within a period of not less than 30 days; (e) consider all submissions or observations received under paragraph (d) and publish a reasoned report addressing the material issues raised.". Mar gheall ar leasaithe a 4 agus a 11, they provide, on page 14, between lines 18 and 19, that a notice would be published about the exemption. Amendment No.”
“The intention behind is to facilitate scrutiny by public representatives and to intervene if circumstances have changed from when the emergency licence was initially granted, that is, if it is no longer necessary. Amendment No. 15 will amend the Waste Management Act in the same way.”
“I move amendment No. 3: In page 13, between lines 23 and 24, to insert the following: "(4) The Minister shall cause a copy of any order made under subsection (1) to be laid before each House of the Oireachtas as soon as may be after it is made, and the order shall lapse 6 months after the date it is made unless earlier revoked or expressly continued by a resolution of both Houses.". Mar gheall ar leasú a 3, this proposes to amend the Environmental Protection Agency Act in order to guarantee Oireachtas oversight. It will require that any order made for a licence in emergency circumstances be laid before both the Dáil and Seanad and will include a clause for review every six months.”
“It should introduce cost-of-living measures, withdraw the carbon tax increases and adopt Sinn Féin’s proposals to address the fundamental flaws in our energy system so that household energy bills come down for good. In conclusion, and to return to the issue at hand, we support strong safety regulation, and we support updating the law so that it is fit for purpose. I look forward to working with the Minister.”
“Some of those who were vociferously against carbon tax, including the Healy-Raes, are now in support of it. Therefore, people are paying much higher prices for heat and transport in a cost-of-living crisis. Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Healy-Raes and the Regional Independents did this in the context of energy companies raising their prices despite the fact prices are falling in other European countries. What did the Government do? It did nothing. It failed to hold the energy companies to account by sitting on its hands and letting them off the hook. That is not fairness. That is failure. I once again call on the Government to do what is needed.”
“Rules only matter if they can be enforced. Without that, regulation is nothing more than window dressing. As I am sharing my time with other Sinn Féin TDs, I will have to conclude shortly. However, it would be remiss of me not to take this opportunity to mention one issue that is as fundamental as safety, and that is energy affordability. As I have mentioned, there are 600,000 homes in the State that use natural gas and 12,000 use LNG. They are being ripped off and are paying much more than in other European states. Up to 200,000 households are in arrears on their gas bills, which is one household in every three. Even more, 300,000, are in arrears on their electricity bills. This is the highest figure the State has ever seen. Meanwhile, supports have been ripped away and carbon taxes have been increased.”
“Efforts to promote an all-island training agenda, supported by training centres in the North, have not been accepted by the CRU. I ask it to reconsider and review that decision. There are serious risks associated with this Bill. As the Minister said, he looks forward to working with the Opposition and other TDs on it. We are waiting for the dedicated body, for the modifications secretary to oversee the document revisions and for the training and inspection procedures, given there is no recognition of prior learning, RPL, in place. These are the backbone of a functioning safety regime. With them, we hope that international best practice can flow. Even if the Bill were perfect on paper, we need proper resourcing. The CRU has been handed responsibility after responsibility, but it is struggling to meet its existing obligations.”
“The CRU should have amended the criteria document to include changes to registration procedures and new entrant categories. A dedicated body was expected to manage these updates, but we await its establishment. Similarly, a modification secretary intended to oversee document revisions has not been appointed, I am told. The CRU has also attempted to introduce electronic gas certification, claiming it would be operational from January of this year, but that is still not in place. When this was introduced for domestic installers last year, industry representatives claimed it did not work properly. Training for domestic and non-domestic gas is insufficient, particularly following the closure of the Cork training college, although I understand the College of Further Education and Training in Limerick still operates training.”
“Inspectors say there are gaps in the legislation. The Installer Representative Panel is an organisation that advocates for the interests of registered gas installers. Its mandate is to engage with the CRU and the GSSB to drive change and resolve the challenges within the industry, including ensuring best practice safety standards. Significantly, the panel opposed the CRU’s proposal on non-domestic gas installation in 2023-24 as it felt it was unworkable. The deadline was missed. Subsequently, the CRU revised the criteria document, sending it for public consultation, but it is said that key stakeholders, including the Irish Hotels Federation, the catering association and the restaurant industry, were not adequately informed about the impact of these changes. I understand the public consultation has not yet been published.”
“To ease that transition, it adopted the RGI logo, so it seemed there was not a huge change. However, some gas installers I spoke to said there was insufficient experience in gas or electrical supervision. As the gas safety supervisory body, its remit is also now expanded to cover natural gas and LPG. I am told that the first year under SEI management was highly problematic, with issues about ID cards, certificates, management processes, email systems and registrations. I have even heard of resignations by inspectors from SEI who joined to facilitate the introduction of non-domestic gas regulations, but felt they had to leave due to safety concerns. For over a decade, the CRU has promised to introduce non-domestic gas regulation, but the deadlines have been missed. Now, with the Bill going through, there has been criticism.”
“Some industry representatives say what is proposed is not fit for purpose and warn that if implemented in its current form, it could do the opposite of its stated intention by creating new safety risks rather than resolving the existing issues. The gas safety supervisory body, GSSB, is responsible for ensuring all domestic gas installers meet safety standards through registration and supervision to protect the public. The CRU then appoints the organisations to this role through a tender for contract. Until 2022, as mentioned by the Minister, the gas safety supervisory body was managed by RGI-Safe Electric, a not-for-profit organisation which the industry said had the experience and credibility to fulfil this role. The contract was then awarded to Safe Energy Ireland, SEI, whose parent company is SPS Global.”
“The concern expressed to us, recognised by the CRU itself in 2020, was that to make its new system workable under a new class of LPG license, it would need to establish a new regulatory framework to govern the unlicensed LPG networks identified, including through requesting the Minister to amend primary legislation to bring all LPG distribution network operators within the definition of an LPG undertaking, as the Minister has addressed in his speech, and also through developing a new class of safety license and operator handbook to govern this new class of license. The CRU also recognised the importance of consultation with experts within the industry. There is concern, however, that these conditions have not been met.”
“Therefore, we need to get it right. The system must be workable, enforceable and resourced. Resourcing is crucial and safety must not be compromised. There is no dispute on any side, following the Oireachtas committee proceedings of 2024, but that reform is urgently needed. Serious concerns were identified by the regulator, the CRU, ten years ago. At the time, 70 unlicensed LPG networks were serving apartments. The complexes varied in size from three apartments to 60 apartments, and from three houses to 64 houses, with pipelines. They were all operating outside any regulatory framework. That is obviously unacceptable given the safety concerns. Strengthening safety regulation is, of course, the correct thing to do.”
“Natural gas and LPG are used in thousands of homes and businesses across the country. I understand 12,000 households are dependent on LNG for their heating and a staggering 600,0000 use natural gas. For those who can neither afford nor access an alternative source to heat their homes, this is not just about fuel; rather, it is about their lifelines. If these systems are unsafe or fail, the consequences can be catastrophic and lives are put at risk, as we have seen on a number of occasions, particularly over the past ten years. I agree that we need strong legislation and robust regulation but strong legislation is not just about rushing something through and hoping for the best, especially when it has been the subject of considerable criticism from within the industry. The industry feels the Government has failed to address this.”
“I agree that this is largely technical. As the Minister said, it deals with issues such as the role and appointment of GEOs, their various powers to enter land, the 21-day waiting period, the determination of the form of a safety permit, and the transition or grandfathering provisions. I welcome the fact the Minister is committed to working with Deputies to progress the Bill because some more work will need to be done on it as it progresses through the Houses. On the surface, the Bill does look technical, with the 23 sections and key provisions about introducing the licensing framework, new safety permits, etc., but if you scratch beneath the surface and dig a little deeper, you find it deals with something more fundamental, namely, safety, including safety in our homes and the safety of our businesses and communities.”
“The energy regulator must be given the power to deal with that and to prioritise major grid infrastructure for major housing developments as opposed to giving all of our extra renewable energy directly to data centres. Will the Government commit today to moving away from the first-come, first-served model for grid connections and ensure that they are prioritised on a need basis?”
“The reality is that there are difficulties with our grid, which is very constrained. Investment in the grid must take place, which the Minister of State mentioned in response to the previous question. However, the cost of that should not be borne by ordinary householders but by the State and by larger energy consumers. A big part of the problem is that data centres are taking up almost one third of Ireland's energy. The surge in energy demand from data centres has already led to housing not being delivered. One such example was in Portlaoise, where multiple families were told they could not move into their homes because an energy connection simply was not available. Similarly, investments that were intended for housing have, instead, been diverted to data centres because there is a first-come, first-served approach. That has to change.”
“I thank the Minister of State for the reply. As I said earlier, the figure for wasted energy was €250 million in 2023 but it is now almost half a billion euro. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of households are in debt and energy poverty has reached record levels. Approximately €1.3 million worth of energy has gone down the drain today. This would have heated 390 million water tanks but that 1.2 GW of power was lost forever. EnergyCloud has a model to divert this waste into a public good. It has a concept and case studies show that it would make a real difference to people's lives. The Government is making a political choice not to pursue this model. The Minister, nuair a thagainn sé ar ais, should at least acknowledge that the Government supports EnergyCloud.”
“Ireland is wasting over €400 million every year on surplus energy. The programme for Government says that legislation could be enacted to divert surplus renewable energy to homes that are in fuel poverty. The amount being wasted has jumped from over €250 million in 2023. I ask the Minister of State to outline a timeline for the delivery of the diversion of wasted energy to the households that need it the most.”
“What is the Minister of State going to do to protect households from the rising costs and to address the unfairness in how the costs are structured and levied?”
“It certainly is not market failure for the energy companies because they are making huge profits. We have called since 2023 for a dedicated hedging monitoring unit so that the regulator can oversee and regulate hedging because the energy companies need to be held to account and to justify the increase in prices. The regulator must also treat energy as a public good. In the coming months, we are going to see an extra €1 tacked onto bills to invest in the grid. Price review 6 also has worrying price increases coming down the tracks. There will be more price increases for the renewable heat obligation, as well as the carbon tax, which the Minister of State's colleagues and supporters in government, the Healy-Rae brothers, opposed vehemently while in opposition, and now are flag bearers for the carbon tax since the last budget.”
“The latest report from the International Energy Agency highlighted the gap between Ireland's wholesale prices and retail prices as being the largest in the world. We are paying a price for energy that is three times what it costs to produce. What is the Minister of State going to do to address it?”
“I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I agree to some extent with him that it is a commercial issue. Obviously all the energy companies have a responsibility to their shareholders not only to have the same amount of profit but to have an increased amount the following year and the year after that. I agree with the Minister of State that hedging is an issue. The Government can see that prices do not come down as quickly as they go up. He said that energy costs in Ireland are the 12th highest in Europe, but when other factors are stripped away we have some of the highest prices in Europe. As the Minister of State knows, household bills have doubled over the last five years. Nearly €2,000 extra is now paid by households compared to five years ago. These prices are not inevitable. They are not normal. Ireland is an outlier in this.”
“There seems to be a pattern but anyway. Irish households are being ripped off in their energy bills. Even the Taoiseach has acknowledged it. Last week at the joint committee, we were told that price gouging cannot be ruled out. The ESRI called for a fresh inquiry into our sky-high energy prices. We introduced legislation a few years ago to stop this, but we were ignored, and since then there are record numbers in arrears, price hikes across the board and vital supports such as energy credits withdrawn and ripped away. If even the Government is admitting that price gouging is taking place, why not do something about it, and stop the profiteering before taking away all the energy credits?”
“The NCSE recently said it is saying it is no longer in a position to issue letters of eligibility for ASD classes in schools and special schools because it issued a deadline on 1 October and it is using that as an excuse to tell parents they are not getting places and to contact the school for any additional supports. Clearly, it is not appropriate to issue a final deadline like that. There is huge stress and anxiety among the parents. We heard earlier about the judicial review and there are legal challenges available to some of those parents where they are not getting the services they require. Will the Department give more flexibility so that people can access the proper services in a timely manner?”
“I thank the Minister of State for her reply. I remember attending a meeting in Listowel last year when the services in north Kerry were closed. It turned out that they were reopened but there were such levels of stress and anxiety among the families and the service users who were used to attending the service, which was just outside Listowel, the north Kerry service the Minister of State mentioned. Will the Minister of State guarantee to expand those services because it is a county where, for example, we have only have two early school intervention classes in the whole of the county whereas County Cork has 22 of them and there are three in the town of Mallow alone? The early services are not there and they need to be expanded.”
“Nearly everyone here knows someone who has used it, is using it or should be using it, particularly older vulnerable people with dementia, brain injuries and disabilities. The monitored dosing systems were historically reimbursed in practice through phased dispensing, as the Minister has admitted, which was in reality known to everybody who was involved in the system. We raised the concerns in October. They were ignored and it is only now the Minister is dealing with it. I am glad to hear she will be addressing it in the future.”
“I could instance hundreds of different ways where I feel the HSE is paying too much. It recently purchased a building in Tralee. The site was previously purchased for about €160,000 two or three years ago, and the HSE recently purchased it for €4.2 million. I know they are paying hundreds of thousands in rent for the primary care centre in Tralee. When I ask how much they are paying for it, they refuse to confirm the amount, probably because they are embarrassed as to how much they are paying. It is not a good use of taxpayers' money. It is a fact that these blister pack monitored dosing systems have been widely used. Whether it is part of the scheme or not, the Minister accepts that there is confusion.”
“I am glad the Minister has recognised that there has been confusion, a lack of clarity and three different types of scenarios in the way this money has been dispensed. I received an email from one constituent informing me that on her last visit to the chemist to pick up her 80-year-old mother's prescriptions, she was informed that the blister pack charge would be increasing to €7.50 per week from 1 January 2026. She was shocked at the extra €5 per week, an increase of 200%. She said that she currently pays €10 a month for the packs but from 1 January, it will be €30, an extra €20 per month. She felt that this was scandalous. If ever there was an issue where the Department did not know on a practical level that the facts of the situation were that the phased dispensing scheme was being used to pay for these, it was this.”
“-----but there is still no sign of it. Would the Minister ever get that published so that the people can have answers and be included in the scheme, and so that the children who are at risk of heavy weight gain and an awful lot of other difficulties are not further punished by having to pay for their own medical reports? If they are in the scheme, they do not have to pay for it. It is inexcusable that they have not been included in it to date.”
“I ask the Minister to make funding available for that. Last but not least, we have been waiting three years, since the Maskey report showed there were 46 children exposed to significant harm and 240 children at risk of harm in south Kerry, and still the north Kerry review has not been published. Over €2 million, I understand, has been spent on it. I was told in July that the north Kerry report would be made available as soon as possible. The file reviews were completed then-----”
“The ETB is paying about €300,000 per year, the Courts Service is paying over €100,000 and the HSE refused to say how much it is paying when I asked it in a parliamentary question but I will get to the bottom of that later. The Minister can be sure that there is over €500,000 in State funding being paid every year for rental on this property. I ask the Minister to encourage Kerry County Council and make funding available to it in order to construct a building that will save money and bring the 140 people who are currently working there into the centre of town where they will be spending money on the retail offering that is in the town centre. Last week I asked about the roof of the Bryan MacMahon hall at Scoil Réalta na Maidine, the boys' school in Listowel. It is 70 years old and was not constructed to modern building practices.”
“I would love to be able to say that Castlegregory is alone in this but there are other villages in Kerry such as Ballyduff, Fenit - which has a similar Imhoff tank or pit near another blue flag beach - and Abbeydorney, to name but a few, where more funding is necessary for these purposes. I also want to raise the need for a public building on the Denny site in Tralee. We recently asked for a meeting with Kerry County Council. There is a building that is owned, I understand, by a Canadian pension fund. The education and training board, ETB, the Courts Service and the HSE are renting properties from it. An opportunity has arisen because the old town council was granted a site on the old Denny factory in the middle of the town.”
“It is fewer than 25 m from the local secondary school and about 150 m to 200 m from one of the 13 blue flag beaches in the county. It is a village that has been repeatedly overlooked for investment. I am asking the Minister to inject more money into the programme for wastewater treatment plant systems in Kerry and to include Castlegregory in that. There are ecological and health imperatives to this. I received some emission limit values from tests that have been done. While I accept that Irish Water has carried out some works in the past few years with pipes, rebuilt manholes, etc., there is nowhere close to reasonable effluent quality. In fact, there is an argument that it is actually worse coming out of the pit that is near the centre of the village than anywhere else.”
“I want to talk in the few minutes I have about some capital projects in Kerry, which badly need to be progressed. In a county like Kerry, with 13 blue flag beaches, mountains, lakes and coastline that are the envy of many, unfortunately we have a major structural deficit. In order for people to reside in their own home areas, we need a massive injection of funding to bring us up to a level that is taken for granted in some of those other counties. Yesterday, I was in Castlegregory, where I met Pat Barry and John Buckley to discuss the challenges for the development of that village. The sewerage system, if you could call it that, is no more than an open pit and an Imhoff tank, which was probably built 70 years ago.”
“The Bryan MacMahon hall at Scoil Réalta na Maidine in Listowel, which is named after the former principal and writer, was built around 1960. Its roof is in a bad state at the moment. There is no internal membrane in the roof and no felt inside the slates. Plaster has fallen in from the attic and there is significant mould and woodworm due to water ingress and a lack of insulation. It needs a total overhaul. The school was refused funding under the emergency works scheme two years ago and was recently unsuccessful in its application under the climate action grant scheme. The hall does not have adequate facilities. It is the heartbeat of the school, providing space for PE lessons, drama, staff meetings and after-school services, to name but a few. Will the Minister step in and do something?”
“We are calling for immediate action to reintroduce the energy credits of three payments of €150; reverse the carbon tax increase and scrap further hikes; give the energy regulator real powers to hold the companies to account and stop profiteering; and make data centres pay their fair share. Treat energy as a public good, not a commodity for profit. Translate our national resources into national wealth for all.”
“Unsurprisingly, those pieces of legislation were blocked by the Government. The Government betrayed households once again with carbon tax hikes on home heating oil. The cost of a tank of home heating oil has already risen by €220 and last week we learned the Government - Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Regional Independents and the Healy-Rae brothers - plans to increase this by a further €150 over the next few years. Last week there was a motion here and a chance to vote against these carbon tax increases and to support our Bill but once again the Government failed to do so. Nearly 1 million households rely on oil to heat their homes, especially in rural Ireland. Ministers cannot continue to shrug their shoulders. Enough is enough.”
“More and more households cannot afford to pay skyrocketing bills while energy companies ride off into the sunset with massive profits. Let us look at the facts. Wholesale energy prices have fallen 75% since their peak in 2022 but retail prices remain sky high at between 50% and 70% above 2021 levels. Average household electricity bills have basically doubled in the past five years from €976 to an expected €1,877 this winter. Who in their right minds thinks this is okay? It is a total rip-off and the Minister knows it. Energy companies are riding roughshod over consumers and being let away with it. The energy regulator has no effective powers to regulate hedging practices or standing charges despite legislation Sinn Féin introduced to fix that and mandate the regulator to prioritise energy affordability.”
“Those are not just statistics; they are real people and families terrified of what is about to come. Rolling out the tired excuse or explanation that the Government's hands are tied will not cut it. The extortionate cost of energy here is not inevitable; it is a result of political choices made. Promises were made last year but it seems to ordinary people they were just an attempt to buy the election. This is the result of inaction since then. The report we received today could not have made that any clearer. The Government was warned of the fallout but chose to proceed in any event. It was also made clear by the Government's complete failure to end the price gouging by the energy companies. It continues to prioritise the corporate bottom line over the needs of workers and families.”
“Then the supports were ripped away, contrary, as we now know, to advice given by Government advisors that they were very much needed. As if people were not frustrated enough, the fact this was done despite the warnings of how badly it could go is a total slap in the face to hard-pressed energy-bill payers. Does the Minister seriously think ordinary workers and families can afford the extra €321 on their bills when they already pay some of the highest prices in the EU? The officials warned bills would skyrocket and the number of households in arrears would further spike, and this has happened. The one lifeline people had to help them keep the lights on and stay warm this winter was ripped away. Already we have a record-breaking figure of over 300,000 households in arrears. Disconnections are up 50% on last year.”
“Beidh mé ag roinnt mo chuid ama leis na Teachtaí O'Hara, Ní Fhearghail, O'Rourke agus Newsome Drennan. I have come from the committee the Minister mentioned and apologise for being a couple of minutes late. Workers and families across the country are being hammered by soaring energy costs and it is happening on this Government's watch. Despite all the promises made before the election to protect workers and families from further increases in energy bills that were already eye-watering, the opposite is being done. For the first time in five years, there are no energy credits. At precisely the moment energy companies announced a fresh round of price hikes, the energy credits were withdrawn. Energia, Bord Gais, SSE, Airtricity and Pinergy all piled on, adding hundreds of euro to household bills.”
“We believe in renewable energy but it must be done right. It must be done democratically and for the people. The first step is the publication of the guidelines. I hope the Ministers will take that back to Cabinet and make sure they are delivered as soon as possible.”
“The updated guidelines must be published as soon as possible. To have a level playing field, we need proper rules and clarity. Sinn Féin recognises the uncertainty this situation has created for local communities. I do not think this Bill is the answer. In fairness to Deputy Stanley, he has himself said that he is not saying it is exactly what we need. It could halt the development of renewable energy or risk Irish energy security and could push bills up even higher at a time when Irish households already pay the highest energy prices in Europe. It could also block Ireland's energy independence and damage our ability to cut emissions and meet climate targets. We are committed to a different path that delivers Irish energy independence, cuts costs, reduces emissions and supports fairness for communities.”
“The Government has failed to plan and to provide the clear rules mentioned so many times by other speakers. A vacuum has been created by its complete dereliction of its duties on wind energy guidelines. As the current guidelines are from 2006, they are nearly 20 years old and in 2013, it was recognised that they were out of date. In 2019, updated guideline were produced but where are they now? They are still sitting on a shelf gathering dust. This is unacceptable to communities that deserve clarity. Wind energy providers also deserve certainty and guidelines to level the playing field. Without them, we have ambiguity, frustration, distrust and division. The Government and its supporters, some of whom were the loudest critics of these delays, cannot continue to leave everyone down.”
“Under successive Governments we have had an energy system that treats energy as a commodity, that is, a product to be bought and sold for profit rather than a public good and that is wrong. Energy is essential for every home, business and community. It should serve the people, not shareholders. We have a clear vision that our vast natural resources should create a national wealth for all. We are fortunate in this country that we have some of the best offshore and onshore wind resources in Europe. That means public and community ownership, proper consultation and fair democratic decision-making. It means reforming the energy market so that Government and regulators hold companies to account, not the other way around. It is a far cry from where we are currently.”
“Energy is not just about power; it is about sovereignty, security, just transition, the future we leave to our children and fairness to communities. I come from the county of Kerry, which has 15% of the turbines with only 8% of the land mass. I saw the troubles over the years when what Deputy Fitzmaurice described as vultures came in and there was a lot of division in communities. In Sinn Féin, we stand for ending the rip-off and cutting household energy bills, for delivering true Irish energy independence and not a system that currently prioritises the corporate bottom line over the needs of the people. We want to do it in a different way from the Government.”
“Sinn Féin has a plan - we heard about it last night - to cut the tolls, reverse carbon tax hikes, end rip-off insurance and support SMEs. These steps would ease the pressure on hauliers, protect jobs and help families. It is time for action, not excuses.”