The spectre of people in Clare shivering in the cold, terrified to turn on the heating while the Government has been found to be sitting on a multimillion-euro energy fund is truly yet another sign that this Government is not up to the job.
That’s the damning assessment of Aontú Clare Representative June Dillon who reveals that only a paltry 2.1% of a €190m fund to help energy consumers with skyrocketing costs has been spent.
Ms Dillon said: “Through persistent questioning by Aontú, the Controller and Auditor has revealed that this fund is literally sitting there while energy costs continue to soar. To unearth the fact that only €3.9m of a €190m fund brought about by the market cap on electricity providers has been spent is absolutely outrageous. The revelation exposes a culture in government that will raise fuel taxes, generating billions in revenue, but will adopt a lackadaisical attitude to supporting those consumers even when money is available to do so. We are now demanding answers from the government as to why this can possibly happen.”
There are so many elderly people in this constituency together with many young families paying exorbitant mortgages and rents and paying the same again in childcare costs and they deserve answers. They are running just to stand still and keep up with a cost of living crisis that shows no signs of abating.
“Every day we are hearing that more and more people are struggling to pay their energy bills, and the response of the government, even in the upcoming budget, is to abandon those who still need help.”
Questions need to be asked about how this situation has been allowed to happen and, importantly, if the government has broken the terms of its own 2023 legislation that requires the fund to be established and schemes to distribute the money be put in place. €186m remains in a bank account to help those who have suffered from high energy prices, and it must be distributed to consumers now as we come into the winter months – it cannot be redistributed or given back to energy companies.
Aontú will be issuing a range of Parliamentary Questions to collect this information, and demand accountability from the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and the Taoiseach, with a view to having funds distributed to consumers efficiently and as soon as possible.”