Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

This morning, Dr. Robert Sweeney, senior economic and policy analyst with the Think-tank for Action on Social Change, TASC, launched a report on the cost of living, which is reaching highs not seen since the 1980s. We know it is going to increase further. It also deals with inequality and we know over a million people were pushed below the poverty line in the past year. He stated Ireland has always been a high cost-of-living country and long-standing issues that elevate our costs include consistent failure in planning and public service delivery. He was asked what targets could be achieved between now and October, and some of those were discussed already this morning. He made a particular point about a windfall tax on energy companies. We know that the profits of these companies have increased enormously because of the price of energy. The UK is talking about a windfall tax, and Italy has imposed a 25% tax on energy companies. Dr. Sweeney pointed out that energy companies in Ireland are registered in such a way that we do not know their profits. What is the Government going to do about this? The proceeds from windfall tax could be targeted at the people who need help most.

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