Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----says more about them than it does about us. Colleagues have raised genuine issues about energy security and there is no doubt about that. We have work to do on that and we have been doing a huge amount of work.

On the crisis, Deputy Whitmore asked for clear messaging on the issue of what the Government is doing versus the caps Sinn Féin proposes. Its proposed cap essentially mean that while prices will be capped, though at what level I am not sure because the party has not said, it would mean we would have to write a cheque from the public to the energy companies to make up whatever the difference between the price they would be allowed charge and the profit Sinn Féin would allow them to make. The Government proposal, working with European governments, is to work on demand reduction measures, work to take the excess profits off the renewable generators and give them back to the Irish people because those revenues have been earned in a non-natural way and to take a windfall tax off those fossil fuel producers as well, namely the gas and oil companies, as the Rural Independent Group is advocating for. They are in the proposal at the moment so instead of what Sinn Féin proposes, which is to give money from the people to the energy companies, we are saying the opposite should happen, namely, we should take the money from the energy companies at source and give it back to the people to help them with their bills and help us with our energy security.

There are a number of other measures under consideration, including the decoupling of the gas price from the electricity price, which is something we would all like to see if it could work. However, it is certainly not easy. It is something that has worked effectively for a number of decades at this point to ensure security of supply at a reasonable price, though clearly there is a big problem with it at the moment and we are working with our colleagues on that as well.

The other issue is a cap on the price of gas such that we would only pay a certain amount. We would tell Russia, Norway, Britain or whichever country that this is all we are going to pay. Ireland wants to see that. We would like all the other member states to agree to that as well and it is something I hope can happen. Again, it is not just as easy as saying the price of gas will be capped because there will be a reaction from the selling countries to that and, therefore, all these factors must be considered. I ask people to at least appreciate that this is complex and in the face of climate change-----

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