Campaigners to protest over soaring energy costs
Crowds are expected to gather on Adelaide Street in Belfast city centre at 1pm on Saturday.
A protest is due to take place outside the Department for the Economy’s Belfast headquarters today (Saturday) as energy bills grow – and so do frustrations.
The Cost of Living Coalition says it is scandalous that energy companies have seen profits grow while ordinary people are plunged into further financial misery.
It emerged this week that the world’s largest energy companies in the first quarter of the year made combined profits of close to £82 billion.
The 1pm rally in Belfast City Centre is calling on the Economy Minister to introduce price controls for electricity and fuel.
“Working class people are finding it increasingly difficult to cope with rising energy costs but Stormont Ministers are asleep at the wheel,” a spokesperson said.
“The Economy Minister has refused to challenge the electricity, gas, and oil companies who are racking up record profits, largely at the expense of our poorest and most vulnerable.
“Our Utility Regulator, which is overseen by the Department for the Economy, approved 17 of 19 proposed energy hikes in the past five years alone. This is unacceptable.
“Just today (Tuesday) we see that the oil and gas giant BP has trebled its profits to £7bn this year. People are now alive to the fact that the current cost-of-living crisis is directly linked to rampant profiteering by these companies. Many of these same companies are also responsible for the impending climate disaster. If we are to have any chance at averting either of these crises, then we need decisive action now.
“The Minister still has the power to implement policy decisions within his Department, but he has point blank refused to challenge the private sector. In the longer term, electricity and energy provision needs to be nationalised so that natural resources are used for the benefit of all. In the shorter term, the Minister should introduce energy price reductions and caps before the cost-of-living crises spirals further out of control.”
When asked about the planned protest, the Economy Minister said that the UK Government needs to “step up and provide support”.
Gordon Lyons said: “We understand the issues that are being faced by people right across Northern Ireland, we want to see resolutions to those.
"We want to see help provided where it can be.
“I think that first and foremost, this is something that has to be sorted out at a UK wide level.
"It’s the Treasury that has the ability to help and to provide further support, and that’s something that I think will be forthcoming to help with the pressures that people face - not just a cost of living crisis but a cost of doing business crisis as well.”
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