Government must protect households from soaring winter bills – Bacik

Labour Leader Ivana Bacik TD said Government has failed to protect households from soaring heating and energy bills this winter. Speaking in the Dáil today, she warned that rising costs are pushing families to breaking point and called on the Minister for Climate to use the powers available to address corporate profiteering in the energy sector and introduce real protections for bill payers. Bacik said that households cannot be expected to “hang in there” while energy companies record record profits.

Bacik said hundreds of thousands of households are already in arrears, and the situation is worsening as temperatures drop. She outlined the scale of the problem affecting ordinary families, from heating oil to electricity tariffs, and criticised the Minister for Climate’s failure to provide meaningful answers. 

Deputy Bacik said:

“Families are struggling to heat their homes. One million households rely on home heating oil, and the cost of that oil has jumped by nine per cent in just one month. That rise alone would stretch any household budget, but it comes on top of further increases from Energia, SSE Airtricity, Bord Gáis and Flogas. These companies are highly profitable and doing very well, while ordinary bill payers face an impossible choice this winter: freeze, or feel the squeeze. Before the cold snap hit, 300,000 people were already in arrears on their electricity bills. People simply have nothing more to give.

“This Government has withdrawn supports, failed to deliver on its own retrofitting targets, and presided over continued growth in carbon emissions. Because of that failure, households in draughty homes have no choice but to rely on fuels that are both environmentally unsustainable and ruinously expensive. The Minister for Climate today skirted around the edges. He failed to engage with the full issue. He offered no plan, no timelines, and no commitment to use the powers already available to the State to protect consumers.

“Energy bill rises cannot be justified by supply costs. It has been three and a half years since Russia launched its horrific invasion of Ukraine. Yet energy providers are still hiding behind geopolitical tragedy to justify increases that cannot be explained by market conditions. Irish households pay markedly higher bills than their European counterparts, and the driver of that is not war. It is greed. The Government could act, but chooses not to. Under existing consumer protection law and competition powers, Ministers can require transparency in pricing, enforce obligations on providers, and intervene where market failure is evident. Labour has repeatedly called for the State to force supermarket chains and energy companies to publish profit margins, to use price control powers, and to introduce targeted relief for those most at risk.

“Labour is clear that action is needed now. Government must cap winter energy costs, force transparency on energy company profits, and give the regulator the mandate and resources to tackle profiteering. Households that rely on oil, gas or expensive electricity tariffs are being placed under unbearable pressure. This is not an abstract policy debate. It is the difference between being warm and going without, between managing the cost of Christmas and cutting back on essentials. Families across Ireland deserve a fair energy system, not one rigged against them. It is time for Government to govern, and to protect ordinary people from corporate greed. Labour is calling for immediate measures to cap winter energy costs, the publication of supplier profit data, and a strengthened regulatory mandate for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities. Families deserve better. The Government must act now.”