Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Energy will again be at the top of the agenda when the European Council meets. We have the power to act independently of the EU to decouple the price of gas, implement a windfall tax and cap electricity prices over the winter. Gas prices have been at historically high levels for over a year and the Government failed to protect people last winter. Artificially high electricity prices have meant the transfer of hundred of millions of euro from ordinary people to the coffers of companies. For over a year the Government has repeatedly dismissed calls from Sinn Féin to stop gas from setting the price of electricity and to apply a windfall tax. I have been asking since last November. The Government did a U-turn on the reforms and the windfall tax as soon as it knew the tide had turned in Europe but the EU policies show an alarming lack of ambition. We will still pay artificially high prices for wind energy, the windfall tax is far too low and will not even apply to electricity companies and we will still pay global gas prices for the gas from the Corrib field even though we are the only possible customers.

If we continue to limit ourselves by the agreement that can be reached at EU level, the Government will again fail the people this winter. There are real knock-on implications. It may seem the Taoiseach and the Minister of State go to Europe and there are no consequences but there are real consequences when the electricity bills are hitting people's doormats, when people are living in fear and anxiety of those bills and when the Government could do something about it. It is time to stop this nonsense of having electricity prices based on gas prices. It makes no sense whatsoever and has not made any sense for at least 18 months, if not before that.

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