Paul Murphy: Ireland for People, Not Profit
Paul Murphy challenges the cost-of-living motion in the Dáil, arguing the measures do not go far enough and calling for a radical transformation to put people before profit. He highlights the omission of rent measures, demands public ownership of energy and urgent action on renewables, and warns against expanding data centres.
Paul Murphy welcomes measures aimed at helping ordinary people but says one-off payments and temporary excise cuts are inadequate. He frames the debate as a choice between an Ireland for the rich and an Ireland where people come before profit.
Murphy singles out the motion's failure to address rent increases as a glaring omission. He questions why rent policy is absent and challenges parties that he says represent landlords rather than tenants.
Murphy outlines People Before Profit proposals: energy price caps, bringing the energy system into public ownership on a not-for-profit basis, major public investment in offshore wind and solar, free retrofitting and solar panels for households, plug-in solar for renters, and free, frequent public transport.
He criticises the expansion of data centres that use about a quarter of the country’s electricity and links that to rising energy costs. Citing recent EPA findings, Murphy warns the government is set to miss 2030 emissions targets and is failing to publish a climate action plan for 2026.
Murphy argues the government's failure to cut fossil fuel dependence is costing households thousands on energy bills, worsening the climate crisis, and risking billions in fines that should instead fund the transition to low-cost renewable energy.
Support limited and temporary
Paul Murphy welcomes measures aimed at helping ordinary people but says one-off payments and temporary excise cuts are inadequate. He frames the debate as a choice between an Ireland for the rich and an Ireland where people come before profit.
Rent crisis left out
Murphy singles out the motion's failure to address rent increases as a glaring omission. He questions why rent policy is absent and challenges parties that he says represent landlords rather than tenants.
Energy policy and public ownership
Murphy outlines People Before Profit proposals: energy price caps, bringing the energy system into public ownership on a not-for-profit basis, major public investment in offshore wind and solar, free retrofitting and solar panels for households, plug-in solar for renters, and free, frequent public transport.
Data centres and climate warnings
He criticises the expansion of data centres that use about a quarter of the country’s electricity and links that to rising energy costs. Citing recent EPA findings, Murphy warns the government is set to miss 2030 emissions targets and is failing to publish a climate action plan for 2026.
Economic and environmental consequences
Murphy argues the government's failure to cut fossil fuel dependence is costing households thousands on energy bills, worsening the climate crisis, and risking billions in fines that should instead fund the transition to low-cost renewable energy.
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Transcript
I welcome the supports for ordinary people in this motion, but they don't go far enough. People are really suffering. They can't afford food, they can't afford rent, they can't afford childcare. You have half a million people in arrears in electricity or gas accounts. We need more than once-off cost of living payments and temporary excise cuts. We need a radical transformation in how this country is run. Instead of the Ireland for the rich that we currently have, we need an Ireland where people come before profit. And we're not going to get that from this government or from right-wing independents. What's noticeably missing from the motion is anything to do with rent. One of the biggest costs for very, very many people in this country that are going up at a record rate and the motion has nothing to say about it. Independent Ireland might come back at the end and explain why rent is missing. Is it because it's a party made up of ex-Fianna Fáilers that represent the landlords, just like Fianna Fáil do? Is it because Independent Ireland would prefer people blaming immigrants for the housing crisis, not the landlords who profit from that crisis? People Before Profit want price caps on energy to give people certainty about costs. To do that, we need to bring our energy system back into public ownership and run it on a not-for-profit basis to provide permanently low-cost, renewable electricity to every household in this country. We need massive public investment in offshore wind and solar. We need free retrofitting and solar panels for every household that needs it, including plug-in solar for renters and free, frequent and fast public transport. We also need to stop building data centres. Again, there's nothing in the motion about the data centres that are currently using about a quarter of our electricity and driving up energy costs for everyone. The government wants to build even more of these data centres. They want to pretend that they will somehow save the tech jobs in Meta, Covalent and Oracle that are being decimated as we speak. One bit of the government's counter-motion that really stands out is the acknowledgement that, quote, fossil fuel dependence, especially imported fossil fuels, is a major economic vulnerability. I agree. But this morning's EPA report shows that the government has no interest in cutting fossil fuel dependency to protect us from the climate crisis and from the cost of living crises. They're going to miss the 2030 emissions target by more than half, by possibly three quarters. A pathetic 4% reduction in agricultural emissions. Our biggest emissions sector is projected with existing measures. But given Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael prioritised profits above all else, you'd think they at least might take action on the economic risk of being faced with having to pay up to 26 billion euros as a consequence. No chance. The climate minister is back to openly admitting he's going to break the government's own climate law after claiming it was taken out of context when he first said it over Christmas. It's nearly June and there's still no climate action plan for 2026 and no date for when it's going to be published. Is that the vital political leadership that the Taoiseach bloviated about at COP30 at Bilem? People should be very angry about this. The government's failure to get us out of fossil fuel dependency is costing us thousands of euros on our energy bill, destroying the climate and it's going to cost us billions of euros in climate fines that could have been spent on transitioning to low-cost renewable energy.