Dundalk's Ó Murchú speaks at Sinn Féin Ard Fheis
Says the party in government would ‘help ease the pain’ of energy costs.
District heating systems, like Carlinn Hall in Dundalk, and the State’s potential to be a wind energy ‘superpower’ were raised at the Sinn Féin Ard Fhéis by Dundalk TD Ruairí Ó Murchú who said the party in government would ‘help ease the pain’ of energy costs.
Around 2,000 people attended the Ard Fhéis at the RDS in Dublin on Saturday and heard Deputy Ó Murchú say there had been ‘consistent and constant government failures’ to tackle the energy crisis including the problems of cost and reliance on fossil fuels.
Deputy Ó Murchú said: ‘We have had abject failure in relation to off shore wind energy. We have the potential to be a superpower in this area, but there have been failures at a planning level, at a resource level and failures of imagination at government level.
“District heating systems have the potential to be a major win for us, from a renewable and waste heat usage point of view. But in Dundalk, we have a communal heating system that is fed by gas and people are being charged extortionate rates.”
The Louth TD continued, “we need the government to provide short term mitigations to ease the pain for these people on the bills that can’t be paid. We need to switch to a fuel source that is more sustainable and that will require the government and the SEAI putting grant schemes in place that will deliver”.
He said people need to have the pain of energy bills eased while moving towards more sustainable fuel sources and added that the government’s current retrofit scheme was ‘aimed at those who can pay the most’. "Sinn Féin in government", he said, would “take on the big suppliers and put in place a system of caps and windfall charges”.
The Louth TD also hit back at those who said this was not the time to talk about Irish unity and called once again for a Citizen’s Assembly on the subject, ahead of a referendum on the issue. He said: “We owe it to the people to deliver that republic, a better Ireland, one that delivers on energy and housing and health and where everyone has a better chance”.