I visited the PrepayPower website this morning. The website states: "If you do not keep your PPP PAYG [PrepayPower pay-as-you-go] Meter topped up with credit, it will self-disconnect and your electricity supply will cut off." On vulnerable customers, it states that: The CRU has put in place a rule whereby [registered] Vulnerable Customers cannot be disconnected for non-payment of [arrears] during winter months. [This applies to both gas and electricity.] It is important that all of our customers ... categorised as …

Those measures will get many pay-as-you-go customers through this winter, no doubt, but will they get all pay-as-you-go customers through the winter? I do not believe that is the case nor do I believe the Taoiseach believes it to be the case either. He said that the fee has been waived for pay-as-you-go customers who want to transfer to bill-pay if they are vulnerable. That is very good but it is for medically vulnerable people. The fee has been waived for people who have sleep apnoea and need to use a CPAP machine…

Thanks to a parliamentary question submitted by my colleague, Deputy Paul Murphy, we now know that data centres are to be included in the temporary business energy support scheme. Under the scheme, businesses can be compensated for increased electricity and gas bills up to a limit of €10,000 per month. The scheme is to be backdated to September and is expected to run until at least February of next year. There are currently approximately 70 data centres in this State. They are, in very significant measure, responsi…

I note that the plans for paid domestic violence leave are being strongly opposed by IBEC. IBEC has argued that employers should be allowed to ask for proof to stop any "potential abuse" of paid leave to victims of domestic violence. This position is disgraceful. Why is the Government supporting five days of leave instead of the ten days that was its previous position? The zero tolerance strategy measures are minimal when set against the epidemic of gender violence in our society. It is beyond belief that the Gover…

The three €200 energy credits will be refused by no one. However, many people see that they are of particular value to the for-profit energy companies that are increasing their prices while making massive profits and will end up with this money in their accounts boosting those profits. The Government argues that fixing prices at 2021 rates would be to write a blank cheque for the big energy companies. That is why socialists call for price controls, on the one hand, and the nationalisation of energy companies, on th…

I express my solidarity with the powerful social movement in Iran, led by women, which has erupted since the state murder of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini. Iran Human Rights has put the death toll at 133 since the state started trying to violently repress this movement, and more than 1,500 have been arrested. Still, this movement grows. The slogan "Woman, Life, Freedom" echoes from one corner of Iran to another. Mahsa Amini was murdered by Iran's notorious morality police, who took her into custody accusing…

Several solidarity protests have been organised in this State since the murder of Mahsa. The Iranian community has been the key driver of these protests, which have been supported by other groups such as students at Trinity College and the socialist feminist group ROSA. These actions should at the very least be matched by the actions of the State. I hear the point the Minister is making. He met his Iranian counterpart at the UN on 21 September and the Department is monitoring the situation in Iran but how much more…

The case for free public transport is overwhelming and unanswerable. In Germany this summer, the €9 monthly rail fare scheme was availed of by 52 million people, equivalent to 60% of the population. The scheme reduced CO2 emissions by 1.8 million tonnes. Free public transport was implemented in Spain last month. That scheme will run to the end of the year. In Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, free public transport for residents has been in place since 2013 and results in a reduction of 742 tonnes of CO2 annually. In…

I wish to express my solidarity with workers at Royal Mail and British Telecom's Openreach who are striking again for decent pay increases this week and next. I will raise a scandalous case for the Taoiseach to comment on. Just six hours after receiving a €15 million windfall from the budget through the abolition of VAT on newspapers, the Belgian-owned Mediahuis group announced plans to shut down printing at its Newry plant at the end of January with the loss of 46 jobs. This company made a net profit of €117 milli…

Students nationwide will be walking out of their classes next Thursday, 13 October, at 11.11 a.m. They will be protesting at the lack of student accommodation and the Government's inaction in tackling the financial pressures bearing down on them. This State is expected to have a shortage of 20,000 student beds by 2024. The Government has failed to cap student rents. Meanwhile, the student contribution charge still stands at a whopping €2,000 and the reduction in the budget is only a once-off measure. Is the Taoisea…

I wish to make three proposals as to how approximately 200,000 pay-as-you-go gas and electricity customers can be protected from the threat of disconnection this winter. The first is to allow customers to transfer from pay-as-you-go bill pay without any obstacles, such as by removing the €199 transfer charge for gas, etc. Disconnections are already banned on bank holidays, Saturdays, Sundays and at other times for pay-as-you-go customers. My second proposal is that the Government could extend the days on which disc…

Economic recovery, but for who? Tens of thousands of pay-as-you-go gas and electricity customers are yet to be convinced that the Government has a plan to protect them from disconnection this winter. Meanwhile, PrepayPower made profits of €14.2 million in 2020, up 27% from the previous year. It is majority-owned by Ulric Kenny, who increased his wealth by €30 million in 2020. A major shareholder is Andrew Collins. According to The Times rich list, he made his third fortune from PrepayPower and is reported to have s…

A moratorium on electricity and gas disconnections is in place for this winter. For most customers, the moratorium will be place from the beginning of December to the end of February. For vulnerable customers, the moratorium will apply from October to March. While this moratorium is very welcome, does it apply to all electricity and gas customers? Approximately 10% of electricity users now use the pay-as-you-go system. That would approximate to approximately 200,000 homes. For low-income households, the percentage …

I am gobsmacked by the Tánaiste’s reply. He said that ideally, it should apply to everybody. However, that implies, and he clearly indicated, that it does not apply to everybody. Who are the people it does not apply to? They are the people who have been disconnected in the past and put onto the meters and are, in many cases, the lower-income people in society. Many of them are vulnerable individuals. The Tánaiste stated that there is the fuel allowance, the community welfare officer and energy credits. That will be…

We will return to this.

That is right.

Councillor Leah Whelan is a Socialist Party councillor in Tallaght in the constituency of Dublin South-West. She is 25 years old. Leah is in a WhatsApp group with 21 of her friends. Some 16 of those friends have emigrated. All of them have left this year. Three of them left earlier today. What does the Government offer this generation? There is a €500 tax credit for renters, which would not even pay ten days of rent over a year in Cork city and which may well end up in the pockets of landlords because of the Govern…

I will start with a question. What is the most telling thing that has happened in this House this afternoon? It is not anything the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Michael McGrath, or even any member of the Opposition has said. The most telling thing that has happened in this House this afternoon is the virtual silence from the Government backbenchers when the Ministers were making their speeches. There was the odd "Hear, hear", a mild ripple of applause …

Will the Minister and his Department undertake an analysis of budget 2023 to ascertain whether it is a progressive budget in the context of its redistributive effects, and will he make a statement on the matter?

The Minister will have to agree with me that we cannot have social solidarity or equality of opportunity alongside gas and electricity disconnections. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, told the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Environment and Climate Action this week that there will be a moratorium on disconnections this winter. With five days to go before the budget, my office is receiving a lot of queries on this. The question we are being asked again and again is whether this moratorium will extend t…