Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I meet the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, every couple of days and, leading up to the budget, I am sure it will be close to daily, in my capacity as the head of two Departments and as the leader of my party. Last night, the Taoiseach, the Tánaiste and I met the Ministers for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform.

We have had a series of those meetings where we consider all of these issues.

To respond to Deputy Ó Murchú, we need to get windfall taxes in. They are an important part of the process. It will not be easy and we will have to work with our European colleagues to make sure it happens. They will apply in particular to wind farms and other generators that are not burning gas. With regard to the solidarity contribution, the only large-scale company involved here is with regard to Corrib gas because it is the only one where we have at-scale fossil fuel production. The Deputy is absolutely right that the Russian Government is looking to divide. No market redesign will address this coming winter. I do not believe it is possible. Certainly, no one who has investigated and looked at this in real detail thinks we can do it in the six months through this winter during which we need protect people. We will have to have a series of measures as we look at market redesign. This is the approach were taking.

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