Paul Murphy: Put People First - End Energy Profiteering Now
Paul Murphy addresses a renewed cost-of-living crisis and accuses the government of prioritising corporate profits over households. He outlines specific policy measures - price caps, scrapping the carbon tax, abolishing standing charges and re-nationalisation - to immediately relieve families facing impossible choices.
Key argument: Paul Murphy argues that the current crisis repeats earlier pain because of continued reliance on fossil fuels, profiteering and a government that refuses to hold international actors to account. He links rising energy prices to short-term profiteering and a refusal to challenge external military actions he says contribute to market shocks.
Policy proposals: Murphy sets out immediate measures to protect households: scrapping the carbon tax, introducing an energy levy on data centres, abolishing standing charges for electricity and gas, reintroducing energy credits, and linking short-term relief to price caps. He highlights his bill proposing a €1 per litre price cap on home heating oil alongside caps on petrol, diesel and home energy.
Political critique: He rejects the Taoiseach's claim of a 'measured, balanced' response and points to budgetary cuts for the poorest and disabled as evidence the government does not understand or prioritise public pressure. Murphy frames renationalisation of the energy system as a long-term fix to reverse the effects of liberalisation.
Consequences and stakes: Murphy warns that without these measures people will continue to choose between heating or eating and that failing to act places corporate profits above household survival. The speech is a challenge to the government's approach and a call for immediate legislative action to protect vulnerable households.
Key argument: Paul Murphy argues that the current crisis repeats earlier pain because of continued reliance on fossil fuels, profiteering and a government that refuses to hold international actors to account. He links rising energy prices to short-term profiteering and a refusal to challenge external military actions he says contribute to market shocks.
Policy proposals: Murphy sets out immediate measures to protect households: scrapping the carbon tax, introducing an energy levy on data centres, abolishing standing charges for electricity and gas, reintroducing energy credits, and linking short-term relief to price caps. He highlights his bill proposing a €1 per litre price cap on home heating oil alongside caps on petrol, diesel and home energy.
Political critique: He rejects the Taoiseach's claim of a 'measured, balanced' response and points to budgetary cuts for the poorest and disabled as evidence the government does not understand or prioritise public pressure. Murphy frames renationalisation of the energy system as a long-term fix to reverse the effects of liberalisation.
Consequences and stakes: Murphy warns that without these measures people will continue to choose between heating or eating and that failing to act places corporate profits above household survival. The speech is a challenge to the government's approach and a call for immediate legislative action to protect vulnerable households.
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Transcript
It feels in many ways like Groundhog Day, talking again about a cost-of-living crisis. But of course, this cost-of-living crisis comes on top of a cost-of-living crisis that had not gone away, despite what the government pretended at the time of the budget. The result is people again choosing between heating or eating, fuel prices spiralling, people in crisis situations. What lies behind it? A US and Israeli criminal imperialist attack on Iran, which the government refuses to condemn, refuses to say is in breach of international law. What lies behind that is our continued reliance on fossil fuels, and most immediately is profiteering. Short-term profiteering, which we know in the last cost-of-living crisis was responsible for two-thirds of the price increases. The government response is to say, to quote the Taoiseach, we have to respond in a measured, balanced way that targets our resources and that is effective. We understand the pressure people are under. I don't believe that. I don't believe that a government that understands the pressure people are under would have cut incomes for the poorest people in the last budget. I don't believe such a government would have cut income for disabled people by over €1,400. The action that should be taken is very, very simple. It's not putting the profits of the corporations first. We mean scrapping the carbon tax, put an energy levery on data centres instead. Abolish standing charges for electricity and gas. Immediately reintroduce energy credits to tackle people's home energy bills in the short-term. Link that to price caps. We have a bill precisely to do that, introducing a €1 per litre price cap on home heating oil as well as caps on petrol, diesel and home energy, and link that to the idea of renationalisation of our energy system. We used to have the cheapest electricity in Europe. We now have the most expensive as a result of the failed project of liberalisation. Put people first, not the profit of corporations.