"First They Gave Big Energy Our Natural Gas. Then Our Wind Resources. Now They're Giving Them €210,000,000 In Cash!" - Fiona Moran
Éirígí - For A New Republic energy spokesperson, Fiona Moran, has slammed the Dublin government’s plan to hand an estimated €210m of public money to the private energy sector. Speaking from Athlone she said,
“The last twelve months have seen a dramatic increase in the prices of petrol, diesel, home-heating oil, natural gas and electricity. The full effect of these price rises will hit families all across the country over the coming weeks, particularly if there is a sustained period of cold weather.
Increases in energy prices hit lower income households the hardest, pushing them into fuel poverty and into making impossible choices between food, heat, clothes and other essentials.
Éirígí energy spokesperson, Fiona Moran, addresses an Éirígí public meeting in November 2021.
High energy prices inevitably cause some people to do without heat for prolonged periods of time. Prolonged exposure to the cold, particularly among older more vulnerable citizens, leads to increased levels of illness and in some cases avoidable death.
Research has long since established clear links between high energy prices, fuel poverty, prolonged periods of cold weather and higher levels of excess winter deaths. It is therefore no exaggeration to describe access to affordable energy as a matter of life and death.
Éirígí highlighted this very point when the Dublin government was handing the Corrib Gas Field to Shell and Statoil fifteen years ago. Today the political establishment is repeating the mistakes of Corrib by handing control of Ireland’s vast renewable wind energy resources to the private sector.
Éirígí activists were heavily involved in the campaign to prevent Shell taking control of the Corrib Gas Field.
The establishment have consistently claimed that their approach will deliver energy security for Ireland. But this is a demonstrable lie which has been once again exposed by the current energy price spike.
Gas from Corrib currently supplies about one-third of the gas that is used in Ireland for home heating, industry and electricity production. While the cost of extracting that gas hasn’t got any more expensive in recent months, the price that we are all paying for it has increased dramatically.
And it’s the same story with renewable wind energy. About one third of all of our electricity comes from wind turbines. The cost of producing this electricity hasn’t increased in recent months, but the price has sky-rocketed.
Ireland’s onshore and offshore wind resources have the potential to produce tens of billions of euro of electricity over the coming decades.
The privatisation of Ireland’s fossil fuel and renewable energy resources hasn’t secured energy security for Ireland because the price of that energy is determined not by the cost of production, but by the whims of the international energy markets.
The only thing that the privatisation of Ireland’s energy resources has guaranteed is the profits of the Big Energy companies that now control our gas and wind resources.
The political establishment seems to care more about the well-being of Big Energy than our own citizens. First they gave them our natural gas. Then our wind resources. Now they’re giving them €210,000,000 in cash in return for them deducting €100 from every electricity bill.
This €210m publicity stunt is the equivalent of robbing Peter to pay Paul. Every electricity user that will ‘benefit’ from the €100 discount on their bill will ultimately end up paying back a portion of the €210m in taxes.
Instead of giving such a vast amount of public money to Big Energy, the government should be instructing the companies that control the Corrib Gas Field and our wind farms to end their price gouging and to bring their prices into line with their production costs - starting with the state-controlled ESB and Bord na Móna.
in the longer term, all of Ireland’s energy resources, fossil fuels and renewables, must be taken into public ownership and used for the common good.”
Power To The People campaign sticker in Limerick.
Launched in October 2019, Éirígí’s Power To The People campaign is calling for public ownership and control of Ireland renewable energy resources and infrastructure. Renewable energy - wind, solar and wave - offer Ireland a route to greater energy security and independence as well as stable, affordable energy prices for domestic and business users.
If you’re interested in joining us in joining the fight for energy justice and For a New Republic, you can do so here.