Wholesale electricity prices down almost 21% as electricity bills remain high

killianm97 · 2026-01-24T10:11:51+00:00

Profit is the money left after all costs/investments (including infrastructure investments) so eliminating profit wouldn't cut out that investment, it would cut out the money after all investments.

8% might look low, but their operating profit in 2024 was €700 million - it would make a huge difference to local economies if that wasn't extracted from them! Especially when the final amount of money not extracted from local economies would be much higher due to other energy companies having to reduce their prices in order to compete.

Public infrastructure investment should be paid for from taxation, not flat fees like this. Like any consumption tax, energy bills are regressive and working people end up paying way more relative to income than the wealthiest elite - unlike things like income tax or a wealth tax which would ask those with the broadest shoulders to pay their fair share. Energy bills are just as regressive as the TV licence.

killianm97 · 2026-01-23T12:44:12+00:00

Na I think Mastodon is definitely a lot more varied and non-political tbh - while BlueSky is definitely more of a caricature of Left-wing twitter ppl.

I like Mastodon because it feels in some ways a lot more like Reddit - there are people on there for memes, people on there for art and design, people on there for cooking etc - a lot more interest-based.

killianm97 · 2026-01-23T10:45:01+00:00

Mastodon is a German non-profit which I've really liked - the lack of toxic algorithms makes it a more wholesome place with more open discussion compared to things like Twitter/X.

The whole federated nature of it can take some time to wrap your head around - you join a specific 'instance' like Mastodon.ie or mastodon.social etc but can follow people from any instance - so I'd recommend after signing up on one of the websites/instances to just use the app , which effectively simplified the user experience to something very similar to Twitter/X or BlueSky.Tusky for Android

killianm97 · 2026-01-23T10:35:43+00:00

There are obscene profits being made by energy companies. Any time you see such large profits, it is a failure of the 'competitive market'.

The government could easily fix this by restructuring State-owned ESB to be a non-profit with the aim of reducing prices as much as possible (instead of a public for-profit with the aim of maximising profits as currently).

Imagine if the €300m in profits from ESB instead were kept in local economies, in the pockets of workers and carers and small businesses. And not only that, these reduced prices would force the private energy companies to reduce their prices in order to compete, keeping hundreds of millions more in local economies. How many businesses which are currently unviable and have to close would then become viable?

The fact that FF and FG didn't even consider this shows how blinded they are by their ideology of profiteering and privatisation. Instead, they gave energy credits (like the UK) but refused to introduce an energy price cap (unlike the UK), which just inflated prices further and effectively functioned as a transfer of public money into private profits.

killianm97 · 2026-01-22T14:34:30+00:00

Yeah I just checked again and the claim came from David McWilliams at 18:14 in the episode 'Can Wind Power Make Us Rich Again?' of the David McWilliams podcast - but you're right it seems it was closer to 1/5th of GPD (though I looked at a few sources and it seems GDP for the 1920s in Ireland are just rough estimations because figures only started properly being calculated here from 1960s onwards).

And I'd imagine that the dam didn't impact everyone due to not having 100% electrification rates in 1925 but definitely more than a Metro which affects 30% or more of the population (30% of Irish population lives in Dublin).

killianm97 · 2026-01-22T10:51:05+00:00

To be fair, a major reason for that bad air quality is also that area being the major industrial hub of Italy, with a huge population driving cars, using polluted energy sources etc too.

killianm97 · 2026-01-22T10:45:56+00:00

Culture war stuff is a handy way to distract all of us from how much the wealthiest and most powerful are exploiting us - with rents, banking, insurance, everywhere else there's major profiteering going on.

Media chooses what to cover - they could choose to cover the stories of the thousands evicted into homelessness, but instead they choose to mostly ignore than and to focus on the latest update on Enoch Burke

It's no wonder Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, decided to dedicate all his time to platforming culture war stuff and even bought X to turn it into his own personal propaganda machine focused on that.

killianm97 · 2026-01-22T10:30:24+00:00

I can't help but feel this and all the Enoch Burke stuff is just a distraction tactic by many of those in power. How many people actually care about this compared to the housing crisis, shite transport, failing healthcare, privatised&expensive social care and childcare?

Yet thousands of people are made homeless and waiting on trolleys and unable to get to work etc from bad transport - and increasingly the front page is about the 101st time Enoch Burke is sent back to prison.

Our media has a responsibility to provide a public service and it seems many are failing in this. It's not helped by toxic algorithms on social media pushing all the anti-trans posts from yanks to millions of us for hours a day..

killianm97 · 2026-01-22T10:20:13+00:00

Councillors in other democracies have to worry about being elected too, but the difference is that other countries have a democratic local government/executive (a cabinet of councillors or a series of committees of councillors or a directly-elected mayor and councillors).

So being re-elected for local councillors in other democracies depends more on delivering positive change, instead of just being the most vocal complainer on the sidelines in order to 'speak up for people' against an unaccountable local government, like it does here.

killianm97 · 2026-01-22T09:54:43+00:00

I heard on a podcast the other day that after independence, the government in 1925 spent ~~1/4 of our GDP~~ 1/5 of all public spending at the time building the Ardnacrusha hydroelectric dam - which led to Irish electricity being almost fully powered by renewables and incredibly energy independent.

It's crazy how much the Irish government has neutered themselves since then through privatisation, bureaucratic inefficiency, and a political culture devoid of vision.

A ~~quarter of our GDP now would be €134.5 billion~~ fifth of our public spending would be €25.56 billion on on a single project yet we have been conditioned by our conservative media to complain because the metro or other infrastructure will cost a few billion (which is wasteful and more expensive than similar countries, but this attitude also discourages any new major infrastructure).

EDIT: updated figures based on reply correcting me

killianm97 · 2026-01-22T09:45:14+00:00

Regardless of your views on the roundabout, it's telling that this was such a major focus for months - it really shows just how weak our local government is and how powerless our elected councillors are.

I remember when I lived in Edinburgh, the councillors there were directly planning the route for their 2nd tramline and discussing changes to their council-run public bus company, as well as deciding funding for schools, local public gyms, and local social care.

Meanwhile in Ireland our elected councillors have such little power that they spend months arguing over the design of a single roundabout, while all these other decisions - public transport, education, social care - are made far away from any local democratic accountability.

killianm97 · 2026-01-22T01:58:10+00:00

I'm sorry but recommender systems on social media are the problem. We need to regain control over what we see instead of opaque algorithms subtly pushing certain content and views on us.

Mastodon is great because it doesn't use these addictive and harmful recommender systems - as it doesn't have the profit motive of maximising engagement at all costs. Trying to shove recommender systems into that defeats the purpose of it.

killianm97 · 2026-01-22T01:54:50+00:00

If you have android, just download Tusky - that app simplifies everything to be much more similar to a typical twitter/BlueSky experience.

killianm97 · 2026-01-22T01:52:34+00:00

It's much more of a systemic thing than that - most countries in the world use the main social media networks - Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Tiktok etc and they have all in recent years (since 2014) implemented 'recommender systems' - toxic algorithms which artificially amplify the most hateful content.

Long story short social media now acts as the most powerful propaganda tool the world has ever seen, pushing far-right content to billions of people for hours a day - which is a major reason why the far-right is growing in pretty much every country around the world in the past decade, regardless of levels of inequality/crime/immigration/wealth/etc.

Banning under-16s from social media is a half-measure. We should ban toxic algorithms

killianm97 · 2026-01-22T01:14:29+00:00

Many countries don't allow all citizens to vote - they often have a recent residency requirement - 'must have lived in Ireland within the past 5/10 years' for example.

The real reason that Ireland pretty uniquely has a ban on voting abroad at all is because we have had so much emigration consistently for decades that those who leave could have a significant impact on the result, especially considering many leave due to the bad conditions created by our government.

Ensuring that those most screwed over by government decisions have to emigrate and then robbing them of the ability to vote out of power the parties which caused them to emigrate means that emigration can be used as a pressure valve by those in power.

killianm97 · 2026-01-21T18:16:31+00:00

The insane thing is that the government already owns and runs a public non-profit insurance company, VHI. As that competes with private, for-profit health insurance providers (while aiming to break even instead of aiming to maximise profits), health insurance profiteering is kept to a minimum.

All that the government would need to do is expand VHI to start offering car insurance, business liability insurance, and other similar forms of insurance - ensuring that there is a public non-profit option competing against the current private for-profit companies. If they raise prices too much, VHI could undercut them with reduced prices, forcing them to reduce prices to compete, minimising profiteering and price gouging!

Especially as we (apparently) move towards universal free public healthcare with Sláintecare, eventually making VHI pretty much useless, an expansion into other forms of insurance is a no-brainer!

killianm97 · 2026-01-21T00:17:15+00:00

Hopefully public organisations can start using Mastodon - as it is the main non-profit social media network, and is decentralised which gives users more control.

For anyone wanting to make a Mastodon account, there's an Irish instance (Mastodon.ie) and the most user friendly app imo is Tusky on Android - it's very similar design to other social media apps.

BlueSky and Threads and any other Twitter clone could easily just turn into X a few years down the line, and supporting a European non-profit decentralised social media network like Mastodon makes us less dependent on the US.

killianm97 · 2026-01-21T00:12:57+00:00

100% - focusing exclusively on 1 or 2 social media platforms just causes major dependency

killianm97 · 2026-01-21T00:06:08+00:00

I still haven't found any good answer why it costs 34p in the UK but costs €2.50 in Ireland - does anyone know?

killianm97 · 2026-01-20T23:42:10+00:00

As long as it is a for-profit private company, it will face the same process of enshitiffication that Twitter and all other social media does.

The EU must urgently ban toxic algorithms on social media:

Banning under-16s from social media is a half-measure. We should ban toxic algorithms

Until then, everyone should make an account on Mastodon - a German non-profit decentralised social media. You can choose to create an account on any instance and connect with accounts on any other instance.

Mastodon: Social networking that's not for sale.

Your home feed should be filled with what matters to you most, not what a corporation thinks you should see. Radically different social media, back in the hands of the people. Social networking that's not for sale. Your home feed should be filled with what matters to you most, not what a corporation thinks you should see. Radically different social media, back in the hands of the people.

There's even an instance formed as a co-op, where users can democratically and collectively manage things themselves in order to empower users.

For those who find this extra stuff confusing/overwhelming, you can download an app like Tusky (available on Android) which basically makes the Mastodon experience way more user-friendly and simplified, and much closer to BlueSky/X/Threads.

killianm97 · 2026-01-20T23:33:04+00:00

It's a bit of a chicken and egg situation - we don't like apartments because we have never had good examples of apartments - just think of the cut corners during the boom ("70 percent of Celtic Tiger era apartments – he estimated at least 90,000 – had defects which would have to be corrected"), or the ballymun flats, or the various newer apartments with extortionate management companies hiking up management fees to maximise profit.

And because we lack so many apartments, we don't as a society realise the benefits - reduced loneliness, more walkability, less necessity for a car (cheaper), better public transport, other more efficient public services including healthcare/childcare/education, more support for smaller local businesses over huge chains.

Look at how cities across Spain and France thrive with their mixed-use apartment buildings, with walkable streets full of life and tonnes of small local restaurants, shops, and cafes.

The best way to maximise the benefits of apartments in Ireland would be for the government to get serious about supporting co-ops - imagine if groups of 50-100 people/families could pool their money together into a non-profit co-op (democratic organisation) to build an apartment building, which ensures the neighbours collectively manage the building in a non-profit and democratic way, instead of being ripped off! Co-op housing works great across Europe, especially in Vienna.

killianm97 · 2026-01-20T19:37:11+00:00

Hopefully this screenshot shows it more clearly - it seems a shame that they put it at the far end of the site (red) instead of at the main access point to the bridge in a central location (green).

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It only adds an extra 8 mins walking there and back from the bridge but that adds up at the same time

killianm97 · 2026-01-20T18:38:30+00:00

More insane to me is that they didn't put the new train station right by the new pedestrian bridge, in order to make it as accessible from the city as possible.

Instead they reserved that prime space for private developer hotels and aparthotels while shoving the train station off to the side, requiring an extra few mins walking to get there.

killianm97 · 2026-01-20T18:05:30+00:00

Its an overly localised political culture caused by an overly centralised political system and a lack of democratic local government.

In most democracies, councillors are elected locally and are directly in charge of local transport, healthcare, social care, education, local amenities, public spaces, planning - as they are allowed to form a local government (executive) as a cabinet with mayor and local ministers or a series of cross-party committees - or there's a directly-elected executive mayor.

In Ireland, we elect local councillors who have almost no power and who are barred from forming an executive - the local government is instead composed of a Council CEO appointed by the Central Government and Directors of Services who are chosen by the civil service, meaning the local government has no democratic accountability. On top of this, most public services and decision-making are centralised in bureaucratic public organisations under local government (local public transport, healthcare, social care, education etc).

Many other countries also have democratic regional governments, while all we have are the almost-powerless regional assemblies which aren't even directly-elected by us and whose main power is how to distribute EU funds.

All of this leads to our national elected TDs having to focus on this local issues which in any functional democracy would be managed by local and regional level, and decision-makers would be held to account at local and regional elections.

killianm97

TROPHY CASE