Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats for tabling this very important Private Members' motion which the Government should take more seriously.

The cost of energy is a crisis for many in the country. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, states that 40% of households are now living in fuel poverty. Many are cutting back on heating to afford food or cutting back on food to afford heating. Just as we see the costs of the crisis come out of people's wages, we see the mega-rich and megacorporations make billions in profits. The massive amounts of money people are having to pay for energy and groceries is not just disappearing into thin air; it is disappearing into profits.

Shell's profits doubled in 2022 and ExxonMobil made €51.5 billion in the same period. These soaring profits saw billionaires' fortunes increase by €2.7 billion per day. This is not just while people struggled to pay bills and pay for groceries, it is because of it. These companies are making billions off people's backs. We need to put an end to this by capping the prices and taxing the profits through a windfall tax.

France capped its gas and electricity prices at 4% last year. Its inflation was 6% last year; ours went up to 9.2% and above. Germany introduced targeted price caps on about 80% of average energy use. Meanwhile, our energy bills have doubled. Inflation has put a massive squeeze on how far everyone's wages go and it is vital we bring in caps to help fight it.

I go to my local shop owner at the corner every morning to get the paper. Practically every day I go in, he asks why there are not price caps with regard to energy as this would help keep things on an even keel. We should leave the energy charter treaty. The fact that we are signed up a treaty that allows the fossil fuel companies that are causing the mass destruction of life on this planet to sue our Government for affecting profits is obscene. It is a political feature of this Government to support investor courts, like we have seen with the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, CETA, and Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership, TTIP. Allowing companies to be able to sue sovereign governments for loss of profits is both morally wrong and a disaster for any attempt to end the profiteering and greed.

According to Oxfam, profiteering has caused at least 50% of inflation increases in Europe and the US. It called this a cost-of-profit crisis; I call it a cost-of-greed crisis. The rich have made billions off working-class people struggling to pay rent and energy bills and put food on their tables. We should take every opportunity to stop and reverse these massive profits and price increases.

I support the creation of a windfall tax on the profits of the fossil fuel and energy companies, but I also support the calls from Oxfam for a wealth tax on billionaires and the mega rich to reverse the massive inequality and poverty this crisis has contributed to and accelerated. I support the motion.

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