Sinn Féin boxes clever as energy bills stay stubbornly high

Just a few months ago, Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan was predicting that it could be two years before utility bills began to drop. There was, he said in December, “no prospect” of wholesale gas prices continuing to fall at the same rate it had since August. In one way, he was totally wrong: the price of wholesale gas has continued to drop. In another, he is being proved right: bills have remained stubbornly high.

Both the Government and the Opposition are now running out of patience, it seems. Sinn Féin will seek to put the cost of living – and the Government’s response – back on the agenda, with a motion in the Dáil later today, targeting what they describe as “wholly inadequate” Government attempts to tax super-profits in the energy sector, and seeking more powers for the regulator.

It’s clever political boxing by Sinn Féin. The Government will probably struggle to make meaningful tweaks to its windfall tax proposal, designed as it is in concert with finely tuned cross-EU efforts. The legislation is also meandering through the Oireachtas, hardly giving an impression that the Coalition is anxious to get it in place fast.

Meanwhile, the regulator has not exactly been shouting the house down to seek more powers. All the while, the loud thud of higher bills landing on doorsteps – a landing no longer softened by energy subsidies, at least until the budget – will keep the issue relevant for voters, notwithstanding the end of the winter heating season.

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For its part, there was a clear gear shift from Coalition Ministers yesterday, with Ryan, Minister for Finance Michael McGrath and Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe to the fore. While energy companies may begin to feel the heat, the Opposition will doubtlessly push the Government for fewer words and more action and be quick to call out inaction.

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Playbook

With Cabinet not taking place until Thursday this week, a truncated political week begins in earnest Leaders’ Questions at 2pm before the vote on the Order of Business. Taoiseach’s Questions is shortly after 3pm, before Government Business on the Second Stage of the Construction Safety Licensing Bill.

This evening, Sinn Féin will bring a motion seeking support for household energy bills at 5.30pm. The motion argues that high bills continue to put pressure on workers and families, with the price of electricity in the State the highest in Europe and the price of gas the eighth highest – and brings the focus on to the failure by energy firms to pass on decreases in the wholesale prices of gas and electricity to customers.

Topical issues are at 7.30pm, before the Dáil adjourns.

Off campus, attention will shift westwards at some point in the afternoon as former US president Donald Trump touches down in Shannon for a short visit to his Doonbeg hotel and golf course. Back at the ranch, commencement matters in the Seanad start at 1.30pm, with Private Members’ Business dedicated to a Labour Party Bill which seeks to include apprentices under the national minimum wage – that’s at 5.30pm.

In front of the committees, the Enterprise Committee hears from Science Foundation Ireland and Ibec on the future of the national training fund at 9.30am, and launches its pre-legislative scrutiny report on the co-operative societies Bill.

Energy poverty will be in the spotlight at the Social Protection committee at the same time, hearing from the St Vincent de Paul.

In the afternoon, the tourism committee hears from Fáilte Ireland and others on rural tourism. That’s at 1.30pm. At 3pm, the committee on social protection will launch its report on pre-legislative scrutiny of the government’s automatic enrolment legislation. More on that report here.

Full schedules are available here:

Committees

Dáil

Seanad