Richard Boyd Barrett: Calls for Emergency Price Controls
Richard Boyd Barrett addressed the Minister in the Dáil, demanding immediate use of the 2007 Consumer Protection Act to impose price controls on petrol, diesel, home heating oil, gas and electricity. He argued that rising energy and fuel costs are already forcing hauliers, contractors, small farmers and families into protest and arrears.
Main demand: Richard Boyd Barrett urged the government to act now and impose emergency price controls to protect workers and small businesses from catastrophic price hikes. He reminded the Minister that Fianna Fáil's 2007 Consumer Protection Act gives the state power to act in emergencies.
Evidence of hardship: Boyd Barrett described how hauliers and small farmers have protested because their backs are against the wall, and highlighted that 320,000 people are in electricity and gas arrears, with the amount in arrears having doubled in the last few years.
Political and international context: He warned the crisis could worsen due to international tensions and criticised those who celebrate escalation abroad. Boyd Barrett insisted the government cannot leave workers behind and must do something serious to address these immediate economic pressures.
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Minister, people don't protest because they like protesting, they protest because they feel they've no choice because their backs are against the wall and that's clearly why the hauliers and the contractors and the small farmers come out and protested because their backs are against the wall because they faced absolutely gigantic hikes in the cost of them being able to earn an income to maintain an income and because they protested and only because they protested you've been forced to make some concessions to them although they are still far short of what they actually asked for which were price controls and I will say People Before Profit are the only people in this Dáil or even to this day who have said we need price controls and I want to reiterate it again and I want to remind the Minister that it was a Fianna Fáil government in 2007 that brought in the Consumer Protection Act which actually said in a situation of emergency the government can act to impose orders to control the prices of goods that are affected by that emergency. Now if this is not an emergency in terms of the hikes in petrol, diesel, home heating oil, gas, electricity I do not know what an emergency looks like. This is self-evidently an emergency and it's going to potentially get worse because of the warmongering of Donald Trump and I seriously hope the people who are cheering on Donald Trump are thinking about it now right. You know the signs were there he's a property speculator who's made his money from property speculating and now he turns out to be a bloodthirsty warmonger as well whose warmongering is leading to farmers and workers in this country suffering economically as well as death and destruction raining down across the Middle East. But I say we need you to use the legislation that Fianna Fáil brought in 2007 to impose price controls and you cannot leave workers behind. 320,000 people in electricity and gas arrears. The amount of those arrears has doubled in the last few years. The amount of people are in arrears. Workers are going to fight in the same way as the hauliers did if you don't actually do something serious to address the concerns.
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