PERRINS: When they say they can't reduce energy bills, they lie
I’d like to issue an official apology on behalf of Laura Perrins to Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee. Yesterday on Twitter I referred to her as an air-headed bimbo, which was clearly discriminatory. My rather harsh outburst was in response to her blathering about how energy prices will go sky high in Ireland because President Trump decided to start another foreign war/defend America in a just war/trigger regime change in Iran/spent too much time on the landline phone with Bibi. What busy little bees that pair have been!
I admit I hadn’t watched the full video because an even bigger air-head came on after Minister McEntee in the form of Finance Minister Simon Harris. How this pair hold the key positions of Foreign Affairs and Finance Minister is truly one of the eight wonders of the world. Thirty years ago Harris would have made a fine Headmaster of some boys school somewhere in county Wicklow and Ms. McEntee would be doing a great job with the junior infants. She reminds me of Roald Dahl’s Ms. Honey.
Where was I? Anyway, this pair were waxing lyrical about how we are all going to be paying more for energy due to the latest middle-east conflict (a region not unknown for its instability, see: The Bible) and well they were going to “monitor” things. Harris spent a fair bit of time thanking people.
What they didn’t say is what the Irish government is going to do about upcoming shocks, increases and explosions in energy prices. What can they do – they are just a couple of Ministers giving a press conference outside Leinster House (nice outfit by the way Minister McEntee) when for once it wasn’t raining.
This is what really annoys me about this government. The pretence that they can do anything about a situation that is entirely out of their hands (Trump and Netanyahu going after Iran) while also standing there like a couple of lemmings pretending that they can do nothing, absolutely nothing about current energy prices.
A quick reminder, “The latest figures show that almost 320,000 people were in arrears on their electricity bills in December last year, an increase of over 20% on the previous year. Meanwhile, nearly 180,000 people were in arrears on their gas payments.” A total of 26% of all domestic gas customers were in arrears in December last year, with 14% of electricity customers unable to pay part or all of their bill.
This was before the latest crisis in the middle-east. In October of last year, the Government confirmed the €250 energy credit would be discontinued for all households.
It is true that some help remains, targeted at the poorest households. There are 460,000 people in Ireland who will now be in receipt of the fuel allowance.
Let’s be very clear, this government wants electricity and gas bills to be high. That’s the aim of the carbon tax – to make it more expensive for people to heat their homes and drive their cars because of the ‘climate change emergency.’
So they might tell you that they are sad for the families who are choosing between eating and heating their homes, the families in arrears on bills, the men going to cafés and libraries so they don’t turn on the heat in this weather but the underlying truth is, the overall policy of this government is to punish people for consuming carbon energy. They can’t have it both ways – that they are very concerned about the climate emergency and they are also concerned about people paying sky high electricity bills.
There are some things the Irish government can’t control – and war in the middle-east is surely one – and there are some things they can control. Two things they can control are the VAT levied on electricity and gas bills and the carbon tax. These are both in the government’s control to increase or decrease. It is government choice to charge VAT at 9% and to punish Irish voters with a carbon tax which is set to increase. On our last bill we paid E61 and E66 in vat and carbon tax. That’s an extra E120 straight to the government that is taking in billions in corporation tax.
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín TD, and Independent Ireland’s Ken O’Flynn have both called for an immediate emergency suspension of the carbon tax, citing the “drastic and sudden” threat to Irish energy security following a sharp escalation of conflict in the Middle East over the last 24 hours. There should be complete abolition of the carbon tax. Someone will then tell me that we will pay some big fine at EU level for missing carbon taxes, well negotiate that or pay the fine. You know what might help with the whole carbon emergency fandango – building the metro. What do we get in return for the carbon tax? Nothing.
Plunging families into energy poverty is a choice that the Irish government has chosen to inflict on Irish families. It is I assume not something they delight in doing (as that would make them psychopaths) but it is a reasonably foreseeable event and therefore by any understanding intended.
So when FF/FG politicians come on your radio and TV, flapping their hands around and engage in woe betide routine, things have gone tits up in the Middle East (a frequent occurrence for anyone with a memory longer than a goldfish) understand that they want you to pay sky high energy bills so you will consume less energy. That is stated government policy. It’s a political choice to inflict energy poverty on Irish families. Nothing, not even Minister McEntee’s fancy rig-out should distract you from this brutal truth.
