Eileen Flynn: '€0.10 is an insult' - demands real action on energy
Eileen Flynn addresses the Minister about the rising cost of fuel and energy, arguing the government's response is inadequate and insulting to struggling households. She cites research and frontline charity reports showing sharp increases in energy poverty and calls for urgent, community-led policy action.
Energy data and urgency: Eileen Flynn cites ESRI research and St Vincent's Paul figures showing around three in ten households now face energy poverty. She warns that a small fuel rebate - described in the speech as a €0.10 reduction - will not prevent many families from being unable to heat their homes and cover basic energy bills.
Who is being hit: Flynn highlights those hardest hit - parents walking long distances to school, nurses doing night shifts, migrant workers whose labour keeps the health system afloat, and households living in poor accommodation. She shares personal experience of living without electricity and argues that energy insecurity damages health, education and well-being.
Political critique and demand for collaboration: The speech criticises the government for slow response and for political posturing by parties that she says wastes time while people suffer. Flynn calls for immediate engagement with anti-poverty groups, trade unions, disability and traveller organisations, migrant groups, older people’s organisations and environmental campaigns to craft an energy policy that works for those on the margins.
Consequences and next steps: Flynn warns that failure to act will deepen hardship and social tensions, and insists the Government must move from rhetoric to meaningful measures. She urges ministers to stop treating protests as a political spectacle and to sit down with community organisations to design real, effective relief and energy policy.
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Lascaire-Lach, Minister, I want to start by saying very clearly I understand why people are on the streets. The cost of fuel and energy is breaking people and the government has been far too slow to see this and to act on it. In recent years, energy prices have gone through the roof. Research from the ESRI and others show that around 3 in 10 households are now in energy poverty, the highest level ever recorded in this state. That means households and hundreds of thousands of families who cannot afford to keep their homes warm to cover basic energy bills. If prices rise any further, people are really, really struggling as it is. I think the £0.10 around fuel is more of an insult than a help. That £0.10 in the next day or two is absolutely... I don't even know if the government are even living in the real world. Do they have any petrol stations? What's going on? Can they not see the rapid increase of petrol and diesel around the country? Look, we have statistics from St Vincent's Paul. Their report shows that nearly 300,000 households are now in rares of energy and living in energy poverty. Minister, I've heard a lot of Fianna Ghael Senators and Deputies talk about getting up early in the morning. This is when the cost of living crisis started in this country. It was going back maybe not to the last government when Leo started out his campaign about getting up early in the morning. Now they have added 4am in the morning, getting up early. What about the mothers who are bringing their children to school who can't afford to fill the car? It's now walking maybe 5km to bring their children to school. What about the nurses that are going miles, driving miles at 8 o'clock at night that are on night shift for work? What about the migrant workers? I didn't attend any of those protestors and the reason why I didn't, it was overtook by the far right. We had a lot of hard working people first come out on the protestors. But look, for me, where I see the tri-flag, I'm terrified to be part of any protest where I see a tri-flag. That's an absolute disgrace in the country as a public representative, afraid to go to any protest where there's a tri-flag. So much hatred out there towards people from migrant backgrounds. And yet, we have a health system that's barely standing. And it wouldn't be standing, I've said this numerous times, if we didn't have migrant workers in our hospitals. That's something that we should all be highlighting to the far right. And it buys my blood to even waste a second in talking about these people who are spreading hate, rumours, lies. I don't even know if I was a TD would I have supported a vote of no confidence in the government. I don't know. But I'll tell you what I do know. The government needs to support ordinary families in this country. Genuinely needs to support, not just the ones that get up at 4am in the morning and get up at 6 o'clock in the morning. For everybody, and especially for people living in poverty in this country. I know exactly what it's like to live without electricity, to have no electricity for maybe two or three days, to live in a cold house, etc. I know what it's like to stay off school because my clothes wasn't washed. I know what it's like to not be able to go to school because the bitter cow the night before, I probably got no sleep as a child. I have eight minutes. No, you do indeed. But I'm going to have to suspend. No, because there's a vote on the dial and we will resume with the remainder of your speech. I apologise for that. Okay. Minister, I'm going to say something that I'll probably get a lot of hate comments on social media for saying it, but I'll say it anyway. Today was a completely waste of time, waste of energy by all political parties, in my opinion. I just felt it was a day that we could have used to work with communities. Yes, Minister, this government needs to listen to people. It needs to change what it's doing right now. It needs to not having some actions that, again, like 10% of a decrease in fuel is not good enough. Not to wait for roads to be blocked, for tempers to be high. It should sit down now with anti-poverty groups, trade unions, disability organisations, traveller organisations, migrant organisations, other older people organisations and environmental campaigns to design an energy policy that works, Minister, that absolutely works. One thing I'll take from today, all this political football when we have people really, really, really struggling on the margins of society. Again, I know better than the majority of people in these houses what it's like to live in a, if you want, very much run down accommodation as a young child, not having lights, sometimes not having heating, sometimes hot water, etc. I did live in very bad traveller accommodation for years and I know that impacts on your well-being, it impacts on your health, like your lungs, your heart, it impacts on your ability to complete education. So we really need to stop the political football that's going on and today, again, a waste of everybody's, absolutely everybody's time and I think we should look for real meaningful action that will really help people that's living in poverty, including those who get up early in the morning, those who do night shifts, those who have no money to fill their cars, to bring their children to school, the children who takes buses, etc. What I'd be calling for right now, Minister, as I said a few minutes ago, is for the Government to work with NGOs, to work with communities and the margins of society and, you know, instead of just hating each other and playing the political football, it's time for action to stop what's going on on our streets. Thank you.
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