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

I move amendment No. 21:

In page 59, between lines 36 and 37, to insert the following: "Reports

21.The Minister shall, within three months of the passing of this Act, prepare and lay before Dáil Éireann a report on a levy on energy supply and generation companies to offset the increased cost of heating and energy for households.".

As the Minister is aware, one area in which we have seen a significant increase in profits is electricity supply and energy supply generally. In the past couple of years in particular, while everybody has been hammered with extraordinary hikes in the cost of energy and heating their homes, the companies supplying the energy have enjoyed an absolute bonanza in profitability, with jumps in their profits they could only have dreamed of in previous years. While there are many losers from the cost-of-living crisis that is impacting so harshly on working people and those on lower incomes, there is a group that is benefiting from all of this.

We have been calling for some time for windfall taxes. In fact, it has gone beyond that now in our view; these companies should be nationalised. I say that not just because of the immediate situation but also because as we start to develop our offshore wind and renewable energy resources, it is unconscionable that the benefits of developing those natural resources will accrue to private companies that will charge whatever price they like for them. We should nationalise them but I know the Minister will not agree to that. As a minimum, windfall levies should be put on these companies in order that we get something back on the super-profits they have enjoyed over the recent period. As a result of the pressure around all this, there were discussions at European level about that being done. Will we see a windfall tax and, if so, when?