Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

New figures from EUROSTAT will confirm what people feel, which is that Ireland is now officially the most expensive country in Europe. Prices are 40% above the EU average. Part of that is down to the electricity prices we are paying, which are some of the highest in Europe. A unit of electricity here costs 26% more than the EU average and the electricity companies - every single one of them - are making a killing in terms of bumper profits. In other countries in Europe, governments have been forced, under pressure from below, to bring in windfall taxes on these super-profits. We should do the same. The 50% tax on these mega-profits would bring in €300 million, which could be used to rapidly roll out attic insulation and retrofitting to help people cut energy usage and energy bills.

I also want to raise the issue of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights, TRIPS, waiver. Last week, the EU and others blocked the calls for a meaningful TRIPS waiver to allow poorer countries to produce Covid-19 vaccines locally without paying massive money to the big pharmaceutical companies.

Shamefully, the Government and the Tánaiste, Deputy Varadkar, have backed this very bad deal. Seven out of every eight people in low income countries are not fully vaccinated due to artificial scarcity caused by big pharmaceutical companies to protect their patents and profits. The WTO ministerial conference deal pays lip service to the idea of a TRIPS waiver, but fails to deliver even a suspension of the patents. As Oxfam says, it is a fudge aimed at saving reputations, not saving lives. It is shameful, and the Government's support for it is a disgrace. We should scrap the patents and speed up the global roll-out of vaccines to save lives and stop new variants.

I also wish to raise the scandalous and illegal treatment of refugees by the Greek Government. It is engaged consistently in what are illegal pushbacks of refugees who are fleeing from horrific situations, such as those coming from Syria. The UN Special Rapporteur on migrants has described pushbacks at land and sea borders as having become "a de facto general policy". In March, 30 Syrian asylum seekers, including two pregnant women and seven children, were confined on an islet in the Evros river for six days following an alleged pushback operation by the Greek authorities. The police arrested them on the Greek shore of the river, detained them for a day and handed them over to hooded men who took them by boat to the islet. Will the Irish Government support calls for an independent investigation and an end to these pushbacks?

Finally, I will mention the refugee camps. These camps, so-called migration centres funded by European money, are nothing short of prisons. A new report has found that one in five people in the camps have been in de facto detention for two months. The camps are exactly like a prison. They are extremely isolated and kept away from centres where people could integrate and so forth. There must be an end to the policy of fortress Europe. We should be welcoming refugees.

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