A proposed new rule for suppliers from Minister Eamon Ryan which will lead to a 10% increase in energy bills has been slammed by Independent TD, Mattie McGrath who accused the Greens of “leaving people shivering in the cold and the dark”.
The Tipperary TD was responding to revelations in the Business Post yesterday that “households and businesses are facing a “second carbon tax” on oil, gas and coal next year which will ultimately increase their energy bills by 10 per cent.”
Eamon Ryan, the Minister for the Environment, is bringing in a new renewable heat rule to cut emissions from households and businesses that are continuing to use fossil fuels.
It will require gas companies to supply their customers with a certain volume of biogas generated from the likes of food waste, farm slurry and grass silage.
Suppliers of oil and coal will also have to purchase a certain volume of biogas for use in the national gas network, or other renewable energy such as biomass.
The increased costs from buying biogas – which is more expensive than natural gas – will be passed on to households that rely on oil, gas and coal for their home heating, as well as businesses which use them for heating and operations.
Estimates from the Department of Environment state that “maximum fuel costs” for oil, gas and coal could increase by up to 10.4 per cent by the end of the decade as a result.
Mattie McGrath said that the Minister seemed to have “no understanding of the hardship high energy bills had already inflicted on ordinary people” and he called for the government parties to move against the proposal.
“The Greens are running rings around the rest of them, even though they are a tiny party – and now they will be leaving people shivering in the cold and dark,” he said.
“They need to go from government, they are completely removed from the reality of life for ordinary people,” he sad. “We had elderly people and families sitting in freezing houses afraid to turn the light or the heat on last winter and now Eamon Ryan wants to add another charge to that,” he said.
“They are causing havoc: they shut down turf harvesting, they want to make criminals of people who cut their own turf – the rest of Europe is looking after its own people, but the government is being led by the nose by the Green and refusing to look at options like Barryroe where we have undeveloped oil and gas, its madness,” Deputy McGrath said.
“This new charge, its punishing ordinary people for using electricity, something that every household has to do, people have no options,” he said.
Independent Galway-Roscommon TD, Michael Fitzmaurice, described the new charge as a “second carbon tax” the Business Post reported.
The renewable heat proposal is expected to come into place next year and will at first result in a 0.25 per cent increase in the cost of energy derived from oil, gas and coal to households and businesses – but this will increase to 10 per cent of sales by 2030.
The expected increase in energy cost comes as concerns rise about fuel poverty ahead of the winter – with an estimated 29% share of households in energy poverty reported last year.