Fine Gael “not serious” about driving down bills, says Ahern

Labour TD Ciáran Ahern has said that Fine Gael has failed to reduce bills through targeted climate action.

Ahern claimed that the government parties have “abandoned” Ireland’s climate legislation for all large infrastructure projects.

The Dublin South-West TD said “PAYE workers need serious intervention from the government to reduce their bills with targeted energy credits, as well as meaningful help to adopt solar and retrofitting projects at scale.”

“Rather than strategic investment in energy security that would drive down people’s bills and meaningfully address the cost of living crisis that is visiting so many people’s homes, Fine Gael has instead opted to provide massive tax breaks for big developers and burger barons in the most recent budget,” he stated.

“Just last week, we saw more sectoral handouts while ordinary PAYE workers continue to call out for real help to protect their incomes.

Ahern said that Ireland is missing a trick by not following what other European nations are doing to tackle the ongoing energy crisis and give relief to households.

On Tuesday, 65% of Spain’s power came from renewable sources – and this is reflected in the price of producing energy – €44.35 per MWh by comparison with €169.15 per MWh in Ireland.

“If this government was serious about driving down people’s energy bills, they would be taking much stronger action to support our energy security,” Ahern said.

“Most people simply can’t afford to so much as consider SEAI grants – which is why Labour has long called for a retrofitting revolution with street-by-street retrofitting projects to bring down the cost of people’s bills. Instead, Fine Gael has left Irish people pay some of the highest energy prices in Europe.”

Ahern said “Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are allowing our emissions budgets to be ridden roughshod over – with the Climate Change and Fiscal Advisory Councils warning of fines ranging from €8 to €26 billion by 2030.”

“Not content with PAYE workers having to pay for that alone, they are now turning to removing the Climate Act legislation for all large infrastructure projects. There are any number of reasons why it takes time to deliver large projects here, but dumping on environmentalists and environmental law is just dishonest.”

Ahern remarked, “none of delays to the new national children’s hospital were due to climate objections.”

“This is all about the government wanting to have someone to blame for its own failure. When will it step up for people, to tackle the enormous cost of living crisis and to path a better way forward to provide real energy security to people in Ireland by urgently rolling out renewables?”