THERE’S been much criticism of the massive hikes in home heating fuel in the last few days amid accusations that there is widespread price gouging involved. It’s a similar situation when it comes to diesel and petrol, with the cost of a litre of each rising steadily since the bombing campaign in Iran began last weekend.
The public will find it hard to understand how fuel that had been bought by suppliers before the current conflict began can now cost up to 50% more than it did last week. Hauliers claim that it is only a matter of time before a litre of diesel breaks the €2 barrier and warn they will have a knock-on effect on almost everything that is sold in the country’s shops, adding to the cost of living crisis.
The so-called regulators claim it is not up to them to control prices while the Government looks on and does nothing as the public are fleeced again in ripoff Ireland. While the sheer scale of the price gouging on the sale of fuel in recent days has caused outrage it has been going on unseen in the electricity market for years.
Not only has the Government done nothing about it, it would appear to be part of government policy to keep electricity prices high for domestic users and small and medium businesses while subsidising the likes of Apple, Google and Amazon.
It has now been revealed that Irish households are paying almost twice as much for their electricity as data centres. Figures from Eurostat, the EU’s official statistics body show that data centres also have much lower network charges imposed on them than those for householders.
Electricity prices in the Republic of Ireland are among the highest in Europe – around 60% above the EU average – and there are more hikes on the way – but the Government has again stated this week that there will be no more energy credits to help with rising bills.
On the other hand there are never ending subsidies for the data centres which are now using well over one fifth of all the electricity generated in the State with some consuming more power than large towns.
The figures show that households are paying an average of 36.8c kilowatt-hour for electricity generation, and 7.6c kilowatt-hour for their network costs.
By comparison data centres and other big energy users are paying just 19.1c kilowatt-hour for electricity generation, and 0.7c kilowatt-hour for their network costs. This means that households are paying 50 to 80% more per unit than big energy users, and six to eight times more for their network charges.
When this is the case it’s hardly surprising that there are now more than 320,000 people in arrears on their electricity bills and many of them are in the Drogheda area. With all new homes and retrofits now almost totally dependent on electricity for heating and lighting, they are literally over a barrel and have no way of avoiding these unfair charges.
The Government should end this unfair practice of literally screwing households and also explain how allowing multinationals sweetheart deals is in the long term public interest.
You’d have imagined lessons would have been learned after the Apple tax fiasco.
More Nail Bars Than Bars in Drogheda?
AM I missing something here, but does Drogheda really need two more nail bars?
It’s getting to the stage where there’s more nail bars than actual bars in and around the centre of town. I couldn’t help spot a notice in the window of the old PTSB building that a new nail bar is on the way while I believe there’s also another one on the way.
How can there be so much demand for nail bars and vape shops when other businesses are closing because of lack of footfall?
It’s a sad fact that in a once bustling town there could soon be little else in the centre of Drogheda other than phone shops, barbers, vape shops and the ubiquitous nail bars.
Drogheda’s Gas Lamp Days Remembered
THESE days, people may be accused of gaslighting, psychological manipulation, but Drogheda was a good hand at another form of it back in the day. As late as the 1940s, much of Drogheda still depended on gas street lamps to light the town, fed by a network of underground pipes from the old gasworks on the Marsh Road.
A recent post from Jim Kavanagh on Drogheda Down Memory Lane shows that in 1935 there were proposals that a sub committee of Drogheda Corporation proposed the installation of “new” gas lamps all over the town including Francis Street, Bredin Street as well as Duleek Street and Ship Street.
It just shows how behind the times this country was when the streets of Drogheda were being lit by Victorian era gaslamps well over half a century after many American and European cities were electrified.
Selective Outrage Over Global Conflicts
IRISH people are on the streets protesting against the war in Iran while Iranians here are celebrating hoping the conflict will finally end 47 years of persecution and tyranny by the Ayatollahs.
We appear to be living in an age of selective outrage where some horrific world events are deemed to be more worthy of protest than another. There have been constant calls for the Occupied Territories Act to be passed in the Dail allowing the banning of goods produced there.
No doubt some of those making those calls have phones and other electronic equipment made in China which engaged in an old fashioned genocide against the Uyghur people. I say old-fashioned in that millions of Uighurs are forced into Nazi-style concentration camps, while young women are forcibly sterilised and children taken from families and placed in state orphanages.
Should there be a bill in the Dail to bank Chinese products when some of them are actually made by those incarcerated in workcamps?
As I’ve said before, all genocides are equal, but it appears some are more equal than others.
