Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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In relation to the windfall tax and the cap on market revenues, there was some discussion about contracts for difference versus refit. The particular design of the windfall tax and the cap on market revenues means very significant windfall gains for some renewable energy companies depending on the contract they have. Wholesale gas prices were at their highest point from April to August last year and the cap on market revenues element of the windfall tax runs from December to June of this year and so misses that whole very high period. What is the witnesses' opinion on this? Was the CRU consulted by the Department of Environment, Climate and Communication or anybody else? Does it have an estimate of the potential windfall tax revenues forgone or the types of revenues? I presume they could be quite spectacular because, as Mr. Gannon said previously, companies have a price point that makes commercial sense to them. We are in totally uncharted territories because of the war in Ukraine. What are the potential implications of that for competition in the market and the attractiveness or otherwise within certain sectors or between the sectors themselves?