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

The Government spent I do not know how long telling us it did not have the flexibility to reduce VAT because it would impact on the derogation. Then we discovered it could do so, as we had said. Europe was happy to move heaven and earth in some respects in response to the war in Ukraine but not in other respects, particularly in respect of trying to protect working people from the economic and financial impacts of the war in Ukraine. By the way, as a little aside, not only did the EU state it would give a little bit of flexibility but not much with a small VAT reduction, which the Minister of State had said we could not get, but it does not want to give any further flexibility. Even for the people of Ukraine it does not want to lessen the economic impact for them. We tabled a question asking whether the Government would consider unilateral cancellation of Ukrainian debt. We got an answer from the Minister that we could not possibly do this because it would impact on the international financial system. This is how much we care about the Ukrainians faced with war. We cannot cancel their debt. We cannot protect ordinary people here against the impact of this inflationary spiral.

Of course the war in Ukraine is having some impact on this. It would be foolish to suggest otherwise. This is not the primary reason for the inflationary spiral and the cost-of-living increases we are seeing. The main reason is a thing called profiteering. Now we can add to this war profiteering. There was profiteering going on before the Ukrainian crisis and now we have war profiteering going on by the energy companies, including oil and gas companies, that have seen their profits go through the roof. This is the elephant in the room. The Government is profiteering through VAT. It is being very slightly reduced but it is not really a full give-back of the huge VAT bonanza the Government has enjoyed as a result of rising energy prices. There is a small reduction in the level of profiteering by the Government via VAT but it will not touch the profits of the energy companies, which have gone through the roof. This is the elephant in the room.

There should be a windfall tax on the super profits being enjoyed by these companies as a result of the inflation crisis affecting so many and which is literally killing people. Let us be straight about this. We had more than 2,000 winter excess deaths. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul states that last year 42% of those with illness and disability reduced their heating and electricity use because of the inflationary spiral. This stuff kills the vulnerable unless we do something serious about it. This is not going anywhere near enough to compensate for the increase of at least €700 or €800 in energy prices alone as well as all of the other costs of living that are rising. The inflation rate is now running at 6.7% and is possibly set to go higher. It means an average worker has lost more than €2,000 as a result of the inflationary crisis. This is what is happening to people. The Government's measures are not going anywhere near it because it does not want to control the profiteering or impose windfall taxes on energy companies. It does not want to control rents that are spiralling through the roof yet again this month, leading directly to people being driven into homelessness. It does not want to touch the profits of people making money from the inflationary spiral.

Let us also remind ourselves about the deregulation and privatisation of the energy market and the decision to take the ESB out of a not-for-profit basis. I was reading the commentary at the time in 2011 when the ESB was starting to engage in price competition. The prediction was that it would be a win-win situation for suppliers and consumers and that it should drive down prices. That did not happen, did it? The exact opposite happened. We had some of the lowest energy prices in Europe prior to deregulation and privatisation; we now have some of the highest. That is profiteering.

It is in the Government's control to act but it is not willing to do anything about it. We could control or tax those windfall profits.

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