Member's statement: Energy Prices

Member's statement by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 9 March 2026.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

9 March 2026

Type

Member's statement

Business

Members' Statements

Heading

Energy Prices

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5452825

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I will speak about a subject that is of the utmost urgency for households, workers and families across the North, and that is the price of energy. Donald Trump and the state of Israel decided to bomb Iran from the sky. I am not here to explain why that is a bad, illegal and idiotic thing to do; I am here to say, however, that members of the public, two thirds of whom in the region use home heating oil as their domestic fuel, already face severe pressure on their budgets. In the past week alone, the price of home heating oil has almost doubled, but, according to the aggregation done by the Consumer Council and the data available on websites such as BoilerJuice, the cost of filling an oil tank will probably more than double very soon. That is putting real pressure on households. The home heating oil market here is utterly unregulated. Households already face real squeezes after years of inflation and, in many cases, slower than necessary pay rises. What to do about it? The Executive need to coordinate a response and stand up for hard-pressed households. I am not saying that the Executive can control what happens in the Middle East — clearly, they cannot — but there are short-term, medium-term and long-term actions that need to be taken. First, we call on the Executive at least to explore a response that helps the hardest-pressed households with energy costs. Thankfully, we are out of the worst of winter, but people still need to heat their homes, and the most vulnerable will face a squeeze. We have therefore asked for some kind of discretionary support. It could be along the lines of previous discretionary support schemes. For example, eligibility could be along the same lines as for those who get rate relief or pension credit. The Executive need to respond, however, because we have the lowest household disposable income in the UK. We also have the biggest exposure to energy shocks, because of our reliance on unregulated home heating oil.

Secondly, we need to start thinking about how and when we regulate home heating oil. There are lots of great family-owned businesses across Northern Ireland that provide home heating oil, and I am not casting aspersions on them, but we know that the market is unregulated. Lots of people literally stick their garden broom into their oil tank to test how much oil they have. We need the market to be properly regulated. Lastly, we need progress from the Economy Minister on an energy transition that means that we are less reliant on unstable parts of the world for fossil fuels. That is completely critical, but we have not had it yet from the Economy Minister or the Finance Minister. There have been warm words and statements about what should happen. but we need action. Not to put too fine a point on it, Sinn Féin TDs call for action from the Irish Government south of the border, where there is proportionately less reliance on home heating oil than in the North. Let us see the Executive act. They got additional money from London last week. They cannot fix all the problems, but they can take some action. At the minute, nothing is happening, and we need support.

551 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:03 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

Disagree with this assessment?

Classifications can be challenged. A person reads every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.

Challenge this classification