Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

First, on behalf of the Labour Party I extend a welcome to the British ambassador, who is here, and I extend our condolences to the British people and to all those on this island who have been impacted by the sad loss of their Head of State. I also note the very positive contribution their queen made to relations between Britain and Ireland on her visit here, not just to Cork but also to Dublin and other parts of the country in 2011. We all remember that visit with great affection. I pay tribute again to the contribution that state visit alone made to improving relations between our islands.

As the Dáil and Seanad resume today, we face into a bleak winter with dark clouds gathering on the horizon, and I think all of us are very conscious of that, as we see energy bills increasing dramatically for so many struggling households and families. Households are facing the dreadful prospect of energy bills that could reach €6,000 per annum next year.

Small businesses are telling us that their energy bills are now as much as their rent and it is like paying a second rent for many SMEs. People and small business owners are really scared. They are facing into this very frightening period ahead, and they want to see some certainty, security and reassurance and also a sense of urgency from this Government. There is one way in which we believe the Government can and should act with greater urgency. We want to see a really clear signal that the exorbitant profits being made by energy companies will be targeted, and that we are not going to see those take precedence over the real prospect of energy poverty for so many households, families and businesses. We know that many of our EU partners have already taken action on energy bills. We know that in the budget to be published in the coming weeks, it will mean the difference for so many families between being able to get by or having to choose between heating and eating as they see bills for food as well as fuel skyrocketing. We know also there are jobs at risk here.

Can the Taoiseach's Government act swiftly on this issue to introduce a range of measures, but in particular, a windfall tax to target profits and to fund the other measures that will be needed to alleviate hardship for families? In January of this year, we, in the Labour Party, first called for a tax on the profits of energy companies. The best time for Government to have introduced that measure would have been then, but clearly now it is still extremely important that it be done. Indeed, the British Government did it in July, the Italian Government did something similar, and we are seeing moves at EU level. We need that immediate introduction of a windfall tax alongside an immediate maximum price cap on energy bills and the third prong for which we have called, namely, the extension of eligibility for the fuel allowance to more households, including low- and middle-income households. We have the costings. We know it would cost €15 million to raise the threshold to €250 per week. That would bring quite a number of households back into the eligibility criteria and alleviate significant hardship. We need to bring in these measures to ensure that the excessive profits of energy companies are harnessed by this State.

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