Energy Policy: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-17
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Mairéad Farrell (SF), Galway West

Ar an gcéad dul síos, ba mhaith liom mo bhuíochas a ghabháil le PBP agus Solidarity as an rún seo a chur chun tosaigh. I thank People Before Profit and Solidarity for bringing forward this really important motion. The reality is the people are in crisis. There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that ordinary people need energy credits and that we need to start putting ordinary communities ahead of data centres. I am actually beginning to think that this Government is making life harder for people on purpose because if this was not on purpose, I do not see how it would be getting it so terribly wrong.
This is the Dáil's first week back and people are worried out of their minds because of the winter they are facing. They are telling all of us they are not able to make ends meet now and everybody is aware of that. They are seeing that oil prices are rising. People living in the west of Ireland are reliant on oil. The Minister of State, Deputy McConalogue, is aware of that as somebody who resides in the west of Ireland. Oil prices are rising and Government is silent. Electricity prices are rising and Government is silent but Government is not silent on public transport fares. In fact, instead of being silent on it, it has decided to increase them. Instead of assisting struggling households it has decided to make it even more difficult for struggling households. Tonight's motion would assist ordinary families and workers by actually by putting money back into their pockets to make it just that little bit easier for them to be able to make ends meet. However, of course as always, these things fall on deaf ears when it comes to Government.
There is a clear message that I want to give to the Minister for Transport who has disappointingly just left the Chamber. Public transport fare price increases have already had a devastating impact on Galway families. A number of individuals in Galway have contacted me to say that they are unable to meet this extra demand on their resources. What this will mean, and the NTA has confirmed it, is that fewer people will be able to use public transport instead of more people. Not only that, but the Government has doubled down when it comes to Oranmore train station where people will now have to pay for parking in order to be able to use the train station, which is ridiculous. They will not be able to access Oranmore train station with public transport until at least 2028. I am unsure how the Government is expecting people to use that train unless it specifically does not want it to be used.
We have also seen a huge increase in the Dublin MetroLink cost. There are serious concerns in the west of Ireland about the impact this will have on people across the west of Ireland, specifically on capacity on the 424 bus. Far too many people all summer have been left waiting at the side of the road, unable to access that bus and it continues to worsen in these months during the academic year. We urgently need the Minister for Transport to intervene.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-17/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:48+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-17