Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Minister appears to have indicated that the Government has not fully made its decisions on an additional package that may be made available to address the cost-of-living crisis we are facing. I will make a suggestion to him for when he is considering what the Government is going to do. To my mind, and the minds of a considerable number of people, it is worrying when he constantly repeats the mantra that we cannot fully protect people against this cost-of-living crisis. It is a constant mantra. It is not acceptable to continue to use that mantra to prepare people and condition them for the hit they are facing as we head into the winter. It is simply not acceptable that pensioners, people with families and people who have done nothing wrong will not have the money to heat their homes. They will have to turn off the heat. They will not have the money to provide hot water to have showers or to pay essential bills, particularly at a time when we are seeing the very companies that produce the energy making incredible profits. It is morally unacceptable that those companies can continue to make profits while ordinary people suffer in an unacceptable way. Whatever solutions the Government comes up with must address that point.

Our view is that the Government should control the prices to make them affordable. There should be some recognition in the face of the unprecedented crisis we are now seeing that a privatised and for-profit energy sector is not capable of dealing with the sort of situation we are now facing. It is incapable of doing so. The evidence is piling up. The EU is now talking about windfall taxes. It was not talking about them a while ago. Only the loony left was talking about windfall taxes but now the EU is considering them. States are starting to control prices. That idea was dismissed when it was proposed by some of us a year ago. States are starting to talk about renationalising the energy sector. Some states are doing that. These are the sorts of things we need. The Government must start to think outside the box, reject previously held convictions about markets and rethink the whole thing in the face of this crisis. We must guarantee that vulnerable people who have done nothing wrong are not going to suffer. We must stop the profiteering. We must also consider whether to take our energy supply, a basic need for people, under the control of the State, where it is run on a not-for-profit basis. Is the Government even considering those things? I think it should.

I note that corporate tax receipts for last year amounted to €15 billion. The Government is projecting €20 billion in corporate tax receipts this year. I know we do not have the returns yet but the Ministers must have a projected figure for what that means in terms of the increased profits that are being made by the corporate sector. There could not be a 33% increase in corporate tax receipts unless there is a corresponding increase in the level of profits. When other people are seriously suffering, a bonanza of profits is being enjoyed, which is reflected in our corporate tax receipts.

Would it not be fair and just to use the huge surge being seen in profits and the additional corporate tax revenues to shield people against the cost-of-living crisis? The Minister for Finance will say that these are vulnerable tax heads, we might not have the money in a year or two and so on. However, one-off payments could be made to shield people against the costs.

There are also other things the Government could do. As well as a cost-of living crisis, we have a massive housing crisis. Would it not be a good investment to use those additional revenues to buy up a lot of the property out there at the moment? Rather than let international investors buy up the newly constructed houses, the State could buy them and avoid spending huge amounts of money on the rental accommodation scheme, RAS, and the housing assistance payment or HAP scheme. Would it not be a good use of the additional revenues the Government has to use them to deliver public and affordable housing for the people who need it?

Would it not be a good use of that money for the State to provide a scheme to insulate homes on a massive scale and reduce energy costs? Would it not be a good investment, one that is not dependent on ongoing current expenditure, to invest in areas such as public transport infrastructure, including more buses for rural Ireland and new routes? Would these not be the types of measures the Government could take with these additional revenues? They would be sensible investments in the medium and long term that would make a real difference in the short term with regard to the cost-of-living and housing crises that people are faced with.