They are still well above their pre-covid prices but a small reduction has been noticed. The Covid 19 pandemic was blamed by the ever-profiteering energy companies for the first round of price hikes, why? What the fuck does a deadly pandemic have to do with putting up the price of energy? The only motive for the expense is to maintain and increase these ever-hungry company’s profits. They operate, as do most modern so-called businesses, on a profit-on-profit year on year basis, meaning each year profits have to increase on the previous twelve months. Any decrease on the previous year’s profits is regarded as a loss, which is not the case it just means profits are not as high.
The pandemic affected everybody, so we were told. Working practices were changed as employees worked more and more from home, meaning less energy would be used lighting up and heating places of work. Surely this should have resulted in a lowering of prices, shouldn’t it? Surely if less energy output is required, and, as we were unreliably informed, we “were all in the same boat regards the pandemic” this would include the energy companies across Ireland, it would be imagined, surely? Well, alas, not. These firms have to continue making huge profits on profits year on year pandemic or no pandemic. We are only supposed to be stupid enough to think “we are all in the same boat” but on a little closer examination we can see this not to be the case. Big business will continue to profit as big business is bigger than everything including a global pandemic. This is the nature of the capitalist economic world we are told is the finest available to human kind! What a load of crap, if this system is the finest man can come up with, I hate to see the worst political and economic system.
Since January 2021 there has been unprecedented uncertainty in the gas and electric market and a sustained rise in ‘wholesale gas prices’. This has resulted in increased energy prices for consumers here in Ireland and, in fact, around the globe. We are reliably informed:
Since January 2021 there has been unprecedented uncertainty in the gas and electric market and a sustained rise in ‘wholesale gas prices’. This has resulted in increased energy prices for consumers here in Ireland and, in fact, around the globe. We are reliably informed:
the more gas generation a country has, the higher the bills. The majority of Irish electricity is generated by gas, followed by renewable energy, mostly from wind. Historical data from Ireland shows that higher demand and higher gas prices lead to higher electricity prices.
During Covid gas generation was lower due to industry using less, therefore the prices should have come down? In Ireland energy prices remain high as the rate in other EU countries fall. Why should that be? One report by independent economist, Simon Barry, tells us:
Irish homes continue to pay high prices for energy while European suppliers cut rates on the back of falling wholesale charges. Energy prices have more than doubled over the last two years, with families now paying up to 44 cent a kilowatt hour for electricity against about 18 cent in 2021. Gas and wholesale electricity prices have been falling here and in Europe since hitting an autumn peak, but Irish suppliers have been hedging deals, where they buy energy months in advance of selling it, prevent them from passing these cuts on to the customers.
Pure fucking greed which should be legislated against, but please do not hold your breath waiting, they tell me suffocation is a terrible death. No capitalist government has the backbone to challenge these companies.
As the Covid affair appears, or again we are told, to be subsiding the energy prices are not following suit. Now the ever money grabbing energy firms have another bogey man to blame, Vladmir Putin. As the war in Ukraine drags on and on, the energy companies here keep their prices artificially high. They blame the price of gas as the Russian leader increases the wholesale price of Russian gas in response to sanctions imposed on him by the European Union. But surely, if Mr Barry’s report is correct, and there is no reason to doubt him, “gas and wholesale electricity prices have been falling here and in Europe” then Putin’s price of gas hikes should have a minimal effect on prices here. Firstly the energy firms here in Ireland blame Covid for their ever-greedy price increases then, low and behold, it is the war in the Ukraine and Putin! Whatever next, the fairies at the bottom of the garden, perhaps they are to blame? Or, perhaps because the price of grain in the Ukraine has risen, due again to the war, therefore our ever-benevolent energy companies have to increase the price of electricity! The price of bread maybe, but energy? It makes no sense, but is it supposed to? No, of course it isn’t we are supposed to swallow this crap without complaint! Unfortunately, that is exactly what we do! Well, more fools us is all I can say, myself included. It is noticeable to see that Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocide in Gazza does not get used as an excuse for rocketing energy prices!
The next time the so-called powers that be put the figures for inflation on the TV or in the papers, the question which should be asked is; are the prices of gas and electric included in these figures? The answer is, like property prices, no they are generally not included. This way they can artificially manipulate the inflation figures in a southern direction which, in turn, gives the employers a good reason not to award decent pay increases when the trade unions come knocking.
So, what can be done to stop these parasites keeping the energy prices synthetically high? The answer is to nationalise these companies taking them out of private profiteering hands. Nationalised industries are not supposed to make profits in fact the P. word stands for provisions. Provision of goods and services to cater for society’s needs. They could, and should, be run on a ‘not for profit’ basis which, it should be pointed out is not the same as ‘non-profit making’. Any surplus value under ‘not for profit’ after wages are paid and the upgrading of technology and combating depreciation in equipment are financed gets pumped back into the industry and not some greedy billionaires ever bulging bank balance. This way prices could be stabilised and people will pay the standard rate, not according to some fictitious market, but the real price to keep warm.
As the Covid affair appears, or again we are told, to be subsiding the energy prices are not following suit. Now the ever money grabbing energy firms have another bogey man to blame, Vladmir Putin. As the war in Ukraine drags on and on, the energy companies here keep their prices artificially high. They blame the price of gas as the Russian leader increases the wholesale price of Russian gas in response to sanctions imposed on him by the European Union. But surely, if Mr Barry’s report is correct, and there is no reason to doubt him, “gas and wholesale electricity prices have been falling here and in Europe” then Putin’s price of gas hikes should have a minimal effect on prices here. Firstly the energy firms here in Ireland blame Covid for their ever-greedy price increases then, low and behold, it is the war in the Ukraine and Putin! Whatever next, the fairies at the bottom of the garden, perhaps they are to blame? Or, perhaps because the price of grain in the Ukraine has risen, due again to the war, therefore our ever-benevolent energy companies have to increase the price of electricity! The price of bread maybe, but energy? It makes no sense, but is it supposed to? No, of course it isn’t we are supposed to swallow this crap without complaint! Unfortunately, that is exactly what we do! Well, more fools us is all I can say, myself included. It is noticeable to see that Benjamin Netanyahu’s genocide in Gazza does not get used as an excuse for rocketing energy prices!
The next time the so-called powers that be put the figures for inflation on the TV or in the papers, the question which should be asked is; are the prices of gas and electric included in these figures? The answer is, like property prices, no they are generally not included. This way they can artificially manipulate the inflation figures in a southern direction which, in turn, gives the employers a good reason not to award decent pay increases when the trade unions come knocking.
So, what can be done to stop these parasites keeping the energy prices synthetically high? The answer is to nationalise these companies taking them out of private profiteering hands. Nationalised industries are not supposed to make profits in fact the P. word stands for provisions. Provision of goods and services to cater for society’s needs. They could, and should, be run on a ‘not for profit’ basis which, it should be pointed out is not the same as ‘non-profit making’. Any surplus value under ‘not for profit’ after wages are paid and the upgrading of technology and combating depreciation in equipment are financed gets pumped back into the industry and not some greedy billionaires ever bulging bank balance. This way prices could be stabilised and people will pay the standard rate, not according to some fictitious market, but the real price to keep warm.
Huge sections of Irish society are paid a heating allowance for the winter months, and recently a €35 per week electricity allowance is being paid to sections of Irish society, disabled people, those over retirement age. A generous allowance better than many capitalist governments would grant. It is not the allowance which is in any way the problem, and it certainly should not be snubbed. My argument is, would such monies not be better used as subsidies to keep energy bills as low as possible in a fully nationalised energy industry? This could be used as a stepping stone towards a fully integrated planned economy across all goods and services, providing for the needs of the population as a whole instead of the greed of the tiny minority.
Society, politically and economically especially in a small country like Ireland could be organised so much better without the capitalist brigands taking all the cream. A starting point should be health and energy providing both for all, in the case of health care free at the point of need.
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| Caoimhin O’Muraile is Independent Socialist Republican and Marxist. |
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