By Cillian Sherlock, PA The Government is allowing “energy companies to rip people off at every opportunity”, Sinn Féin has said. Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the interim report from the Government’s own energy taskforce shows that households will be “hit with massive electricity bills this winter”, with average yearly bills approaching €2,000. Ms McDonald said 300,000 households are unable to pay their electricity bills, with the amount in arrears doubling over the last four years. She said the Government decision not to continue energy credits has “left working people worse off”.

You sit back and you allow big energy companies to rip people off at every opportunity

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions in the Dáil, Ms McDonald accused the Government of pretending that households are not being “brazenly ripped off”. She said: “Government failure to tackle energy rip-offs leaves people in desperate situations. “Families using prepay meters going days without electricity, households relying on organisations like the St Vincent de Paul to keep the lights on. “You sit back and you allow big energy companies to rip people off at every opportunity. “And now, as the days get darker, far more families will be forced to cut back on necessary electricity use, continue counting the cost every time they use the washing machine, feeling pressure every time they flick on the light switch, because they know it’s costing a fortune.”

Ms McDonald told Public Expenditure Minister Jack Chambers that the Government had not acted in response to a report from the International Energy Agency, which found that retail prices in Ireland are three times higher than wholesale prices. “You still do nothing. Worse still, you actually have the neck to tell people to wait until next year for some pie-in-the-sky plan,” she said. Mr Chambers responded by saying that the Government did take action in last month’s Budget by keeping a 9 per cent VAT rate on gas and electricity and increasing the fuel allowance. He said his Fianna Fáil colleague and Energy Minister Darragh O’Brien has done “extensive work” with the energy affordability taskforce. “If you take the Programme for Government, we’ve set out changes in assessment of the overall regulatory model when it comes to energy price in our economy, and that’s work that he’ll undertake,” he said.

A magic money tree doesn't work

“But also, if you see the National Development Plan, our continued investment in the warmer home scheme, hundreds of millions of euro to support families when it comes to the warmer home scheme and many of the other interventions there to support low-income households.” Ms McDonald said it was not sustainable to refer families that are “struggling so badly” to the National Development Plan, budgetary parameters and “whatever other political jargon” he had. She said: “Do you understand how widespread the experience is now for households that can’t make their bills?” Mr Chambers rejected that he used jargon and said he absolutely understands the pressures families are under, as he pointed to the “significant” social protection package in the Budget. He said: “I won’t take lectures from you on the economy – a magic money tree doesn’t work.” He said Sinn Féin’s alternative budget would “wreck our economy” and lead to job losses.