Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 18 April 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Climate Action

Pre-Legislative Scrutiny of the General Scheme of the Energy (Windfall Gains in the Energy Sector) Bill 2023

Mr. Evan Walker:

We start off with a long list of options for how it could be tiered. Obviously, it does not go from €90 to €91 and it is necessary to put in thresholds. We considered a long list of options of what the various rates would be and that is borne out in the multicriteria analysis. We arrived at the short list. The question was whether to capture the windfalls at €90, which would be the minimum threshold or in public spending code terms the "do maximum" option. It is to go after that fully. There are also other criteria in the multicriteria analysis, one of them being to reduce country-specific risk as well as maintaining positive investment signals and security of supply. It is covered in the RIA in some detail. The briefing outlines where we ended up relative to other countries. We are in the lower decile of caps.