Richard Boyd Barrett Calls for Price Caps as Energy Costs Rise
Richard Boyd Barrett questioned the Government over rising home heating oil, petrol, diesel, electricity and gas costs. He called for price controls and a return to one euro per litre for kerosene to ease pressure on households facing higher energy bills.
Energy costs and household pressure
The question addressed the impact of rising fuel and energy prices on households, particularly the approximately 700,000 homes dependent on home heating oil. Richard Boyd Barrett argued that the Government should not pass the cost-of-living burden on to people least able to afford it.
Call for price caps and higher taxes on profits
Boyd Barrett called for price caps on home heating oil, petrol, diesel, electricity and gas. Richard Boyd Barrett also proposed higher taxes on energy companies and pointed to reported profits of €740 million by DCC Energy, arguing that major suppliers could absorb a greater share of the cost.
Carbon tax concerns
Richard Boyd Barrett described carbon tax as regressive, arguing that it places the greatest burden on people who are least responsible for the cost-of-living crisis and least able to manage further increases. He urged the Government to target energy profits instead.
Government response
The supplied extract contains Richard Boyd Barrett’s contribution but does not include a substantive Government response. The central question remained whether the Government would introduce price controls, reduce kerosene costs and make energy companies contribute more through taxation.
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Thanks to Sinn Féin for bringing forward this motion and we're happy to support it. We would go further. We think there needs to be price caps, and we've said this for some time, imposed on home heating oil, on petrol and diesel and electricity and gas. Our proposal is to bring the price of kerosene back to one euro a litre by imposing price controls which would eliminate the nearly 70% increase that people, 700,000 households in this country have had to endure as a result of what? Donald Trump. Donald Trump. And shame, shame on people in this house who celebrated Trump, supported in any way Donald Trump, have refused to apologise, I'm not talking about Sinn Féin by the way, in this regard. People in this house who have supported the policies of this man, whose policies have resulted in every single household in this country having to suffer higher fuel and energy bills this winter and for the year. The supposed friend of the small person turned out to be what? The friend of the oil magnets, of the billionaires and of the oligarchs. And while other people were concentrating on what he was saying about Whiskey when he was over last weekend, you should have heard what he was saying about oil and going to war against Venezuela to get their oil and encouraging us then to buy all the American weapons that have been so successfully deployed in taking out the President of Venezuela in order that America could grab their oil and then profiteer from it. Profiteer from it while ordinary people are suffering in terms of not being able to pay their bills or in the case of those with home heating oil, dependent on it, seeing a 70% increase in the cost of having to heat their home thanks to Donald Trump and the Israeli regime. But the point is the government shouldn't unload that cost on the people who can least afford it. Carbon tax is a regressive tax. The ESRI said a few things today but the one thing they said categorically was it is regressive and there is no getting away from it. The people who hurt most as a result of carbon tax are the least responsible for the cost of living crisis and the least able to bear the increases and the hikes that are taking place. So tax the profiteers. DCC Energy last year made 740 million euro in profits, the major suppliers of kerosene in this country. They could afford to take a bit of a hit. Let's make them pay a bit more tax and the energy companies and the electricity companies and the put price controls on energy and home heating oil.
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