Debate contribution: Energy Market

Debate contribution by Mr David Honeyford on 11 June 2024.

MLA

Mr David Honeyford

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

11 June 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Energy Market

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4496023

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I beg to move

In proposing the motion, I tell you what: I accept the SDLP amendment. You would almost think that it had been copied and pasted from Hansard. I have already said every word that is in the amendment in the Chamber, so I am happy to support it, and I am even more delighted that the SDLP listened to what I said. I welcome the Minister back to office, which I have not had a chance to do yet. I wish him well into the future.

Alliance is delighted to bring forward this motion, which reaches to the heart of providing solutions to help to reduce energy spend from household budgets and seeks to prevent a situation in which the recent massive increase in energy costs could ever happen again. Energy is central to all our lives: it is the cost of heating our homes, of boiling the kettle and of putting fuel in our cars. We live in an exciting time of opportunity, transition and change. At this time, we must position ourselves to take full advantage of that and deliver the benefits directly to every household. Addressing this issue continues to require an all-island approach. We live on an island in the Atlantic Ocean. We have all the natural resources at our disposal, so we must tackle the climate emergency and protect our environment, not only for ourselves but for future generations. We must create the circumstances to enable us to quickly move away from reliance on fossil fuels. Unfortunately, the pace of transition is stalling. Alliance tabled the motion in order to bring attention to that and to provide solutions to help to bring us back on track and deliver secure, cleaner, fairer, safer and cheaper energy for every household. Alliance believes in that, and we will continue to strive to become an ambitious world leader in energy efficiency and clean, net zero technologies, creating new highly skilled jobs locally. With technology advancing quickly, we must seek to develop our capacity to the point that we can export surplus electricity as well as investing in the progressive technologies of biogas and hydrogen. Waiting or stalling are simply not options. Any delay to developing and constructing our major infrastructure builds on a financial problem that will end up costing every one of us in the long term. The Alliance Party will not stand back while the public sleepwalk into further and higher costs. As energy comes under my role as economy spokesperson, I raised this matter early in the term and am committed to working to try to eliminate and eradicate fuel poverty. Alliance believes that that is the energy target that we must work towards delivering. Insulating our homes and upgrading them to be airtight would reduce the amount of warm air that leaks out and drafts of colder air that come in. Fitting smart meters is another measure that we can easily introduce into all our homes. Those are measures that we can and should help with, and they will drastically reduce the amount of energy that is needed to heat homes in the first place and protect the most vulnerable. A new fuel poverty strategy would ensure targeted delivery for those who are most in need, making sure that they are supported first. Alliance proposes that we start with those homes. Homeowners in our constituencies also need our support to transform their home heating from oil to a more sustainable energy method, be that biogas, heat pumps or solar panels. The initial capital outlay to upgrade a property is a major barrier that the Assembly can help with through a mixture of grants and interest-free loans to allow delivery. A cost-neutral facility such as interest-free loans would enable people to spread the cost over several years and thus to see the savings as they use less energy. By helping families to better insulate their homes and providing grants to help to upgrade our social housing stock much faster, we would drive down the cost to our constituents by reducing the volume of energy used to heat homes in the first place, while we also work to address energy transformation away from fossil fuels. This is an issue for all Departments. I stress that every Department must be accountable for meeting net zero targets and facilitating the transition to renewable energy. Offshore wind, onshore wind, solar, biogas and hydrogen are all areas in which we must invest now, in order to create the conditions for those technologies and industries to flourish and create new, green jobs. I stress this point in the Chamber, again: our green industry continues to be held back by an outdated and under-resourced planning process. Reforming our current planning process must be an absolute priority if we are to deliver. I have said before in the Chamber that every business should make a profit, but the other side of profit is taxation: we should redistribute wealth to support low and low-to-middle earners. Alliance wants to build a region where everyone thrives — a united community in which no one is left behind. We cannot sit back when ordinary people on ordinary incomes are hurting while oil and gas companies continue to make hugely exaggerated profits that go to a few. There must be a rebalancing. Taxation is a Westminster issue, but I stress again that, for Alliance, taxation must be progressive and must redistribute wealth fairly to protect our most vulnerable. With 70% of households currently reliant on home heating oil, we must help local families and households to deal with the price of oil. Alliance therefore calls for the regulator to be given control over costs, placing home heating oil within the remit of the Utility Regulator to bring the market in line with gas and electricity to ensure price transparency for our consumers. Alliance also calls for a change to the Utility Regulator's functions to include meeting net zero targets. That will help to protect consumers through energy transition and drive down the cost of energy into the future. From speaking to energy specialists, we must start the process of building our main electricity infrastructure now to allow for the expansion and connection of solar and wind energy across Northern Ireland. The days of our network being based on three power stations are over; the planning and building of our new electricity infrastructure must happen now. The regulator has a key role to play, and the net zero targets must be added to its functions if we are serious. We must develop the network over the next decade rather than leaving a huge void and building up a huge cost in the future. The problem is in front of our eyes. The Assembly should act now to prevent playing catch-up in the future. Be in no doubt: Alliance will always stand up for ordinary people and, equally, for the planet and our local environment. Alliance calls for action against climate change and is tabling the motion to set out and reinforce a delivery path to net zero in order to deliver a green new deal, support green new industries and create highly skilled new jobs. Importantly, and central to those objectives, Alliance will also stand up for our constituents from every background and every social group. Alliance will always stand up for equality and justice for the better.

1,231 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 10:44 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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