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

I am speaking about the higher level of VAT receipts specifically on energy and heating. Let us forget about the rest. It is up to €481 million and rising. The State has yielded a big tax bonus from the energy hikes that ordinary people are getting through their doors that they cannot afford. This gives the Minister scope not to impose further hardship on them. In fact, it gives him scope to reduce their energy bills and reduce the hardship, as do the profits of the ESB. The Minister is right that it is a publicly owned company. Its profits should be capped. Tell the company not to increase prices because he would rather not impose further hardship on people to get extra dividends. For that matter, the profits of Energia have increased. Tell that company that it does not need to make extra profits this year because people are suffering and they cannot take any more.

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