Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I want to acknowledge the enormous pressure a lot of people, families and businesses are under because of the rise in energy costs. We have seen a dramatic rise in energy costs over the past two years, almost entirely driven by international factors, and exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and other factors related to it. In fairness, a lot has been done by the Government to help people with the rising cost of living. I might read them out later, but I can identify 25 individual measures alone that the Government has introduced only in the past year or so to help people with the cost of living in lots of different ways. We have always acknowledged that it is impossible to fully insulate everyone from the rising cost of living, though we strive to insulate those on the lowest incomes and those dependent on pensions and social welfare to the greatest extent that we can.

The Deputy mentioned the fact that some energy companies will make very large profits this year. They made very large profits last year and will do so again this year because of the high cost of energy. In many cases, they will make profits they never thought they could make. That ranges from the Corrib gas field to oil and petrol refineries and State-owned companies like the ESB. That is not fair, right or okay, and we will act on it. When it comes to State companies making very large profits, we can use the dividend system to take a special dividend and use the money to help families and businesses with the cost of living. When it comes to private companies, we have a windfall tax. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, updated the Cabinet on that earlier today so there will be such a tax on energy companies. I do not want to give too much detail, but the plans are very well advanced and hundreds of millions of euro will come in from a windfall tax on energy companies. That is money we did not factor into the budget for this year. It is additional funds we can use to help defray the cost of living.

When it comes to businesses, we acknowledge that the take-up of TBESS was a fraction of what we thought would be. The Ministers, Deputies McGrath and Coveney, are working on enhancements to that scheme so that more businesses qualify for it and they get larger amounts. We acknowledge that the take-up and drawdown of the scheme has been a fraction of what we thought would be.

We are reluctant to introduce price caps because they are very hard to cost. Essentially, if we introduce a price cap, the Government is saying that this is the cap people have to pay and we will pay the rest no matter what it is. Even if it is limited and targeted, it is very difficult to work out what it will cost and there are big risks involved in that. It is essentially a contract for difference, which the Deputy will remember in respect of Anglo Irish Bank. While the Deputy gave examples of Germany and Spain, it is also something that the Truss government tried in Britain and it did not work out so well.

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