Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Deputy. To take the two areas of additional revenue and to start with the one he raised specifically, namely, the cap on market revenues, as he knows, the legislation giving effect to that is currently before the Oireachtas. As the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, alluded to in his reply to Deputy Nash, the proceeds from that will be collected by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities and will be redistributed to support consumers of electricity. I understand that will be through reduced market tariffs. Reduced charges will be passed back directly to customers in the form of a reduction of those tariffs on their bills. The cap will apply to the revenue generated in the seven-month period from December 2022 to June 2023, inclusive.

To take the second issue, which is the temporary solidarity contribution, as the Deputy knows that was operationalised through legislation in July and commenced on 2 August. At the time, the estimated Exchequer proceeds were in the range of €200 million to €450 million across this year and next. The first payment in respect of the contribution, which relates to last year's profits, is expected to be received into the Exchequer this month and as such, estimates of the revenues to be raised across the two-year period will be subject to revision in the budget 2024 fiscal projections. I should have said regarding the cap on market revenues that provisional scenarios suggest that somewhere between €80 million and €150 million can be raised as a result of that initiative.