Ivana Bacik: Government Relief 'Too Little, Too Late'

and we looked after the lowest income groups and for the household benefits scheme as well which was substantially improved as a result of the budget. Ramanavich, Ciann Comhairle, Taoiseach, the illegal war on Iran launched by Trump and Netanyahu is now in its fourth week and households across the country are reeling from the energy crisis. Petrol and diesel prices now well over 2 euro per litre and those reliant on home heating oil, particularly badly affected, facing massive price increases at the cost of refilling a 1,000 litre tank gets to 1,800 euro. So in the face of this, your government's package of measures to support struggling households which you've described as generous, it's simply not enough. Too little and very late Taoiseach. True, the excise and levy cuts to fuel prices will give relief to some as will extension of the fuel allowance but there are hundreds of thousands of households already in arrears on energy bills and no real reassurance here for far too many. One woman who emailed me just before I came in here to convey what she described as her disgust and deep unhappiness. As a working single parent she says with her last electricity bill at 637 euro she says there is nothing in this package of measures for her. So for her and for so many more Taoiseach, we need longer term thinking. We need measures from your government that will ensure energy security and that will tackle climate change too. Labour have championed a real right to remote and flexible working and the IEA are telling us this is what we need to do. To pivot to this, to pivot to real investment in cycling and public transport to decarbonise our economy and our society as Deputy Jed Nash has said and this is imperative in the week when the world's meteorological organisations say 2025 was the worst year on record for climate change. Taoiseach, last Thursday you attended the European Council in Brussels. There you would have heard Spanish Prime Minister Sanchez speaking about how Spain is less exposed to this huge energy shock than other European countries. Why? Because they pivoted early to renewables. Last week 60% of Spain's electricity was generated through renewables. The price of electricity per kilowatt hour is well over 100 euro here. The equivalent price in Spain just 14 euro. An extraordinary difference. In Brussels myself last Thursday I spoke with Sanchez with Climate Commissioner Teresa Ribeiro because the Spanish left government have shown robust leadership within the EU strongly condemning the US and Israel for the attacks on Iran and also showing leadership, real leadership on climate action and that's what we need from your government. Real leadership. Clearly the best way to address the crisis is to stop the war and European leaders should now unite to condemn the war to challenge Trump on his so-called little excursion to stand up to this erratic and dangerous leader not hand him a bowl of shamrock in the White House. But while the war continues we must ensure, the government must ensure that struggling households are protected and we must strive harder to shift from fossil fuels. So Taoiseach, will you join with the Spanish socialists in condemning the US-Israel war? Will you work with EU leaders to stand up to Trump to stand up to this bully and seek an end to the war? And will you ensure that struggling households are really supported through this crisis and that we now move urgently to end our reliance on fossil fuels? Please. First of all, Deputy, people are under a lot of pressure and I would acknowledge that. That's without question in terms of the impact of this crisis in terms of the cost of energy resulting from this war. No question about that. And government is limited in terms of how we can comprehensively... Governments cannot compensate for every single person in society. I'm sure you'd acknowledge that. And we need to have a realistic assessment and discussion about this. But what we can do is to try and protect those on the lowest incomes and also protect people generally and give them some supports and try and reduce the impact of this crisis. And the reduction in excise duty does that. Not totally, but at least it helps. And it takes a bit of pressure off people. But we acknowledge fully that it doesn't deal with the scale of the increases in the excise duty. Generally, home heating oil or indeed in petrol prices. But the focus on the fuel allowance, I think, does help with home heating oil. In combination also, of course, with the work in terms of the reduction in the Nora levy as well. And remember the substantial household benefits package, about 420 million... Or sorry, 420 euros annually for electricity and gas. The supplementary welfare allowance is there for people in real need and I know the Minister for Social Protection has spoken to community welfare officers and to his department to make sure that they're responsive to anybody in need. And we are looking towards the autumn budget in terms of how we can develop mechanisms to connect what we do on fuel poverty allowances with arrears. And that's something that we have to focus on and work on. That there's a direct connection and that we can get those arrears down for people. In terms of the renewable story, Ireland has been very fast in recent years, probably the fastest growing in terms of renewable energy. And what happened in Spain and Portugal is they have a higher level of renewables. And during the Ukrainian, the Russian invasion of Ukraine, they managed to get a separate agreement from the EU in respect of the price structures governing prices in the Iberian Peninsula. There was a lot of discussion at that at the EU Council meeting last week. It's not that the assessment from the Commission is that the connection between gas and the pricing levels and defining the price levels is not easily broken. And that is a challenge for Europe more generally because that is a key determinant in terms of the overall price of energy. And you know the four component parts. So we've acted on one of those four components parts, which is taxes and levies. And the ECB spoke to the EU Council meeting. The Eurosummit chair spoke to the... And they recommended, as per IMF advice, targeted temporary affordable measures. And they warned that we don't know what's around the corner. So therefore we do have to keep something in the reserve if things deteriorate even further over the next couple of years. Taoiseach, of course the Labour Party supports introduction of short-term measures to support struggling households. I think everyone does. Everyone acknowledges that here. But this package is just not enough. You could do more. But look at it this way, Taoiseach. Last year in the budget, the full year cost of the tax cut you gave to hospitality, to the burger barons that Deputy Nash speaks about, that cost is 680 million euro. That's three times. Three times the package that you're offering struggling households now. And what you've said yourself is the biggest energy shock we've seen in the world. It's just not enough, Taoiseach. And you've acknowledged yourself the reality of fuel poverty for far too many households across the country. The reality of the hundreds and thousands, hundreds of thousands of households in arrears already on electricity and gas bills. You must acknowledge, Taoiseach, the desperate overexposure of Ireland on the LNG front. We're so reliant on LNG. We're so reliant on fossil fuels. And we're simply not acting fast enough to roll out renewables in the way we should. We know that takes a little more time. But we need to see commitment from government on this. And here's one very quick ask the IEA have called for. Move now to a real right for remote and flexible working. That's one way to support struggling households. There's a lot of flexible remote working in our economy already. Particularly in the public service is quite significant, the degree of remote working that's prevalent now. But again, you attack the reduction of VAT for hospitality. That supports a lot of minimum wage workers in our economy, people you should be supporting and defending as a Labour Party. Not everybody in the hospitality is on the minimum wage. But nonetheless, it was about protecting jobs in an important domestic sector of our economy. And particularly with changing job profiles with AI and everything else, it's important that tourism and hospitality is protected and looked after. And that's what we did in the budget. And in terms of LNG, I mean, the most important thing you were saying about energy security, the LNG facility is required from an energy security perspective. Absolutely. It's not nonsense. It's rubbish to suggest we shouldn't put in an LNG facility in this country. Absolutely nonsense in terms of, sorry, if anything happened to gas connectors in this country with the United Kingdom, this economy wouldn't survive beyond 10 days. That's the reality. That's the advice we've received from an energy security. But you have to twist it. Thank you, Taoiseach. But it gets twisted. It gets spun as an anti-climate measure. It's anti-climate. It's an energy security and an economic security.