COST OF ENERGY:A CLASH between the Green party and Fine Gael about the cost of electricity and gas to consumers has escalated as Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan insisted that prices were below the EU average while Fine Gael said they were the third highest in Europe.
Both parties used the EU’s Eurostat figures for their claims.
Mr Ryan accused Fine Gael spokesman on energy Leo Varadkar of “playing politics” and questioned whether the Opposition party had changed its policy of support for renewable energy.
But Mr Varadkar hit back, accusing the Minister of being a “fantasist” and of making “completely false claims” that electricity prices were below the euro- zone average.
He accused the Minister of introducing an “expensive subsidy regime” for inefficient and pricey wind farms in the wrong places, which was driving up the price of energy. “It’s the Green Party equivalent of one-off housing and subsidising hotel construction during the boom,” he said.
At the Green Party’s think-in, Mr Ryan told journalists that statistics always change but the latest Eurostat figures showed that “we’re 98 per cent of the European average” or below the euro zone average. He said “in small business we’re 3 per cent below and the Eurostat statistics show we’re at 97 per cent”.
Fine Gael said the Minister was using “purchasing power parity” which adjusts costs depending on household incomes in various countries. “On that basis everything in Ireland is cheaper, which is rubbish.”
Mr Ryan said the Government was taking up to €600 million from the bigger power companies this year “to subsidise Irish businesses and Irish households and that brought prices down as well as gas prices coming down internationally”.
He said there was a huge job creation opportunity and called for Fine Gael support because “the more certainty we have around that I think the more easy it will be to get investment. So playing politics around it, putting it out that all of a sudden Green policies are costing us money, is not accurate.”
“The more important, fundamental fact that Leo has to address and consider is, is Fine Gael supportive of us tapping into those renewable power supplies we have? It’s a huge opportunity and working in Brussels at the moment, I’m confident we can get money from Europe to help us build the integrated grid that will help us deliver it,” he said.
