Gino Kenny warns of soaring energy bills and fuel poverty
Gino Kenny addressed the minister about rapidly rising energy prices and the threat of fuel poverty, urging urgent action. He criticised deregulation of the energy market, highlighted data centres' electricity use, and called for a major expansion of retrofitting in social housing.
Immediate concern
He said energy prices are increasing worldwide and that recent reports suggest household bills could rise substantially - possibly by up to €500 to €800 - creating alarm and trepidation among many people.
Retrofitting of social housing
He highlighted that there are 160,000 social homes in Ireland and that the current government programme is only retrofitting about 2,500 of them. He described that level of action as welcome but far short of what is needed to protect households from high fuel costs.
Energy market and deregulation
He blamed deregulation of the energy market in 2014 and the move away from a public utility model for contributing to higher prices. He also said carbon taxes have compounded the issue and that competition has not delivered lower prices as promised.
Impact on households and mortality
He warned that fuel poverty has deadly consequences, citing a figure of 1,500 to 2,000 deaths a year linked to people being unable to heat their homes. He emphasised that many families will face serious difficulties if price increases materialise.
Demand for ministerial action
He pressed the minister for concrete mitigation policies and asked what measures will be taken to prevent rising energy prices from causing more fuel poverty. He said failure to address the issue would be a very serious matter for the government.
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Minister, many people will be very, very alarmed of the news this week in relation to energy prices increasing substantially up to maybe up to 500 to 800 euros and coupled with that in the news in relation to data centres using an enormous amount of electricity you can understand there is a sense of trepidation and energy prices are currently rising worldwide for a variety of reasons. One is a geopolitical reasons and one is down to deregulation and competition and competition was meant to bring kind of I suppose competition to the market and lower prices but in fact it has done the opposite and you know part of our kind of motion is that fuel poverty kills, it actually kills over 1500 people to 2000 people a year and that's an incredible statistic because where what people want to do is to heat your homes. One aspect I want to zone in on is the relation to retrofitting of social homes in Ireland. There are 160,000 social homes in Ireland and at the moment through the government programme just two and a half thousand are for retrofitting. Now that's welcome but that needs to go much further. What's that? What's that? What's that? What's that? What's that? It's not true to say. They are the facts right? But obviously there are lots of people that will spend huge amounts of money on fuel, huge amounts of fuel because obviously the houses are not efficient in relation to keeping that. And that's facts right? And whether you want to dispute that as well. But another fact which is a deciding fact is about the deregulation of the energy market in Ireland. I mean the ESB is an incredible company, it was a public utility but then in 2014 your government which are possessed by privatisation deregulated that market. And now we have a situation where prices have increased and the consequences are as we've seen. Coupled with that, carbon taxes have then compounded the issue of energy efficiency and that is leading to serious difficulties. Mr. Minister, the question is, which most people will be posing, if this price increase comes, and it will come, then what effects, what policies will you try to mitigate them energy prices leading on to fuel poverty? Because, you know, that fact itself where people actually die of hypothermia or, you know, fuel poverty, surely that is a very, very, very serious matter in relation to this government. Very, very serious matter. And if you can't address that, then it's a shame on this government that's in situ. Thank you.
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