I must now deal with a postponed division relating to the motion regarding nationalisation of the energy system. Today, on the question, "That the amendment to the motion be agreed to", a division was claimed and, in accordance with Standing Order 80(2), that division must be taken now.
Nationalisation of the Energy System: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]
The following motion was moved by Deputy Paul Murphy on Wednesday, 14 December 2022:
That Dáil Éireann:
agrees that:
— privatisation and marketisation of the energy system has failed;
— it has led to exorbitant household heating and electricity costs, averaging €4,300 a year, unprecedented levels of energy poverty, carbon emissions that are among the highest and fastest growing in the European Union, and dependence on imported fossil fuels for 70 per cent of our energy use;
— it has failed to enable a just transition to renewable energy, or to reduce energy use, and is inherently incapable of doing so;
— the Government's policy of encouraging the construction of energy-guzzling data centres, which have accounted for 70 per cent of the increase in metered electricity usage since 2015 and now swallow up 16.5 per cent of total electricity demand, more than all rural homes in the country, has worsened the energy crisis and brought us to the brink of blackouts this winter;
— the failure of successive Governments to invest in free, green, frequent, and fast public transport has produced near-universal car dependency, forced car ownership, crippling annual costs of €10,600 per car, high carbon emissions and unhealthy levels of urban air pollution;
— the Government's Climate Action Plan 2021 target of almost one million electric vehicles on our roads by 2030, and any amended plan that relies on massively increasing the number of private electric vehicles, is undesirable, unsustainable and unachievable;
— the Government's emissions reductions targets under the Climate Action Plan 2021 are woefully inadequate across all sectors and very unlikely to be met;
— privatisation and a lack of long-term democratic planning of energy needs have led to the looming threat of amber alerts and blackouts this winter; and
— the only sustainable way to reverse this situation and provide cheap, green energy for all is to move to a fully electrified energy system based on 100 per cent renewable energy, combined with planned reductions in energy usage; and
resolves to:
— re-integrate the Electricity Supply Board (ESB) Group and restore its non-profit mandate across its generation, network and supply operations and immediately impose price caps on all private energy companies, including pre-pay, district and communal heating operators, at a level that reduces energy prices to below pre-crisis levels and eliminates profits as a precursor to nationalisation;
— transform the Commission for Regulation of Utilities to a people's power agency with a mandate not to promote competition but to ensure the delivery of affordable electricity for all households, including those on pre-pay, district and communal heating schemes, a reduction in energy usage across the economy, and a transition to 100 per cent renewable energy;
— recognise renewable power as a natural resource to be developed publicly, and legislate that all future major renewable power projects must be developed by the ESB Group in the public interest, as wind, solar, tidal and all other sources of renewable energy are natural resources which should be developed in the public interest, not subject to private profiteering; and
— move without delay to nationalise the energy system, enabling the provision of affordable energy to all on a non-profit basis and democratic planning of the State investment needed for a rapid transition to a 100 per cent renewable, zero carbon energy system, based on environmentally-sustainable publicly owned onshore and offshore wind, solar and thermal energy; and
— draw up a realistic, ambitious plan to significantly reduce energy usage across electricity, heating and transport, to include:
— a ban on the construction of any additional data centres and the connection of any more data centres to gas networks or the national grid, in particular the eight hyper scale centres planned in the next two years;
— the establishment of a State construction company to directly retrofit all housing in the State that needs it, beginning with rapid free attic insulation for all who need it, the installation of energy and cost efficient heat pumps in all suitable housing, and roll-out the construction of at least 20,000 zero emissions public homes a year; and — investing in free, green, frequent and fast public transport to dramatically reduce household transport costs and car dependency, tackle air pollution and cut carbon emissions.
Debate resumed on amendment No. 1:
To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following:
"notes that:
— the Government is keenly aware of the growing pressures that families and businesses are under, and Budget 2023 announced a package of support measures amounting to €2.5 billion, including a lump-sum payment for recipients of the Fuel Allowance and a broadening of the threshold for that allowance, and this follows a previous €2.4 billion package of policies and measures in place to support people since October 2021;
— any proposals to amend the electricity market structure should be based on a detailed analysis and evaluation of the potential impacts of any changes;
— through the Climate Action and Low Carbon Development (Amendment) Act 2021 and the Climate Action Plan 2021, the Government is committed to delivering a climate resilient, biodiversity-rich, environmentally sustainable, and climate-neutral economy; and
— the Government is strongly committed to providing all citizens with reliable and realistic sustainable mobility options, and public transport plays a key role in the delivery of this goal;
further notes that:
— electricity and gas retail markets in Ireland operate within a European regulatory regime, wherein electricity and gas markets are commercial, liberalised, and competitive, and responsibility for the regulation of the electricity and gas markets is solely a matter for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities;
— the European Commission is carrying out a review of the electricity market and may propose adjustments following an impact assessment, which is welcome as any proposals to amend the electricity market structure should be based on detailed analysis and evaluation of the potential impacts of any changes, and Ireland will engage with this programme of work with a view to maintaining the integrity of the all-island Single Electricity Market;
— under the Electricity Costs (Domestic Electricity Accounts) Emergency Measures and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022, all domestic electricity accounts, including pre-pay accounts, will be credited with €550.47 (excl. Value Added Tax) in three payments through the November/December 2022, January/February 2023 and March/April 2023 billing cycles at an estimated cost of €1.2 billion;
— the new Energy Poverty Action Plan, which is currently being finalised, sets out the range of measures that were implemented ahead of this winter, as well as key longer term measures to ensure that those least able to afford increased energy costs are supported and protected, and the development and implementation of the plan was overseen by a cross-departmental Steering Group, chaired by the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications;
— following the Government's statement on data centres in July 2022, any new data centres are expected to bring onsite dispatchable generation (and/or storage) equivalent to, or greater than, their demand, so that any new data centres developments ensure their own security of supply and thus reduce their impact on the wider electricity system, which will help to balance the demand for electricity with the critical role that data centres play in Ireland's enterprise strategy;
— in Budget 2022, the Department of Transport secured circa €538 million of funding for Public Service Obligation and Local Link services provided by State operators and under contract by the National Transport Authority this year, and more recently, €563 million has been secured as part of the Budget 2023 negotiations for the continued improvement of these services;
— the substantial investment in transport in recent years and the planned ramping up of major projects such as BusConnects in every city, Connecting Ireland Rural Mobility Plan, Cork Area Commuter Rail programme, Dublin Area Rapid Transit+ Programme and MetroLink means that the national public transport landscape will continue to transform for the better in the coming years;
— the Climate Action Plan 2021 commits to achieving at least five gigawatt (GW) of offshore wind by 2030, and includes a suite of actions to realise the potential of Ireland's offshore renewable energy resources, and further to the recently approved Sectoral Emission Ceilings, the Government is targeting the delivery of an additional two GW of offshore wind for the production of green hydrogen;
— the recently approved Sectoral Emission Ceilings set out a framework for meeting our Carbon Budgets and Ireland's commitment to a 51 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030, which will be reflected in the next Climate Action Plan due to be published by the end of 2022, and this plan will build on the 2021 plan and set out the measures and policies to keep us within our carbon budgets and on the pathway to a zero-emissions economy by 2050, and the process to deliver this new Climate Action Plan will include the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications engaging with other Government Departments and State Agencies to identify opportunities for accelerating our climate action; and
— a significant and substantial transformation of all sectors and systems is required, bringing with it opportunities for more resilience, income diversity, food and energy security, healthier patterns of mobility and for further carbon sinks across Ireland, and these changes will require a collaborative effort by Government, businesses, communities, and individuals to implement new and ambitious policies, technological innovations, systems and infrastructures."
- (Minister of State at the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Ossian Smyth)
Amendment put:
The Dáil divided: Tá, 73; Níl, 53; Staon, 0.
Tá
- Brophy, Colm.
- Browne, James.
- Bruton, Richard.
- Burke, Colm.
- Burke, Peter.
- Butler, Mary.
- Cahill, Jackie.
- Calleary, Dara.
- Cannon, Ciarán.
- Carey, Joe.
- Carroll MacNeill, Jennifer.
- Chambers, Jack.
- Collins, Niall.
- Costello, Patrick.
- Cowen, Barry.
- Creed, Michael.
- Crowe, Cathal.
- Devlin, Cormac.
- Dillon, Alan.
- Donnelly, Stephen.
- Donohoe, Paschal.
- Duffy, Francis Noel.
- Durkan, Bernard J.
- English, Damien.
- Farrell, Alan.
- Feighan, Frankie.
- Flaherty, Joe.
- Flanagan, Charles.
- Fleming, Sean.
- Foley, Norma.
- Griffin, Brendan.
- Harris, Simon.
- Haughey, Seán.
- Heydon, Martin.
- Higgins, Emer.
- Hourigan, Neasa.
- Humphreys, Heather.
- Kehoe, Paul.
- Lawless, James.
- Leddin, Brian.
- Madigan, Josepha.
- Martin, Catherine.
- Matthews, Steven.
- McAuliffe, Paul.
- McConalogue, Charlie.
- McGrath, Michael.
- Moynihan, Aindrias.
- Moynihan, Michael.
- Murnane O'Connor, Jennifer.
- Naughton, Hildegarde.
- O'Brien, Darragh.
- O'Brien, Joe.
- O'Callaghan, Jim.
- O'Connor, James.
- O'Donnell, Kieran.
- O'Donovan, Patrick.
- O'Dowd, Fergus.
- O'Gorman, Roderic.
- O'Sullivan, Christopher.
- O'Sullivan, Pádraig.
- Ó Cathasaigh, Marc.
- Ó Cuív, Éamon.
- Phelan, John Paul.
- Rabbitte, Anne.
- Richmond, Neale.
- Ring, Michael.
- Ryan, Eamon.
- Smith, Brendan.
- Smyth, Niamh.
- Smyth, Ossian.
- Stanton, David.
- Troy, Robert.
- Varadkar, Leo.
Níl
- Andrews, Chris.
- Bacik, Ivana.
- Berry, Cathal.
- Boyd Barrett, Richard.
- Brady, John.
- Browne, Martin.
- Buckley, Pat.
- Canney, Seán.
- Carthy, Matt.
- Clarke, Sorca.
- Collins, Joan.
- Collins, Michael.
- Connolly, Catherine.
- Cronin, Réada.
- Crowe, Seán.
- Cullinane, David.
- Daly, Pa.
- Doherty, Pearse.
- Ellis, Dessie.
- Farrell, Mairéad.
- Fitzmaurice, Michael.
- Fitzpatrick, Peter.
- Funchion, Kathleen.
- Gould, Thomas.
- Guirke, Johnny.
- Howlin, Brendan.
- Kenny, Martin.
- Kerrane, Claire.
- Mac Lochlainn, Pádraig.
- McGrath, Mattie.
- Mitchell, Denise.
- Munster, Imelda.
- Murphy, Catherine.
- Murphy, Paul.
- Mythen, Johnny.
- Nash, Ged.
- O'Callaghan, Cian.
- O'Donoghue, Richard.
- O'Reilly, Louise.
- O'Rourke, Darren.
- Ó Broin, Eoin.
- Ó Laoghaire, Donnchadh.
- Ó Murchú, Ruairí.
- Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
- Pringle, Thomas.
- Quinlivan, Maurice.
- Ryan, Patricia.
- Sherlock, Sean.
- Shortall, Róisín.
- Stanley, Brian.
- Tóibín, Peadar.
- Tully, Pauline.
- Whitmore, Jennifer.
Staon
Tellers: Tá, Deputies Jack Chambers and Brendan Griffin; Níl, Deputies Paul Murphy and Richard Boyd Barrett.
Amendment declared carried.
Motion, as amended, put and declared carried.