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

I am sharing time with Deputy Nash.

I thank the Social Democrats for bringing forward the motion. We in the Labour Party are happy to support it in full. Today marks 12 and a half months since we introduced a Labour Party cost-of-living motion that proposed, among other things, the introduction of a windfall tax, so we have had similar debates previously. In the months since the debate on that motion was held, the price of energy has more than doubled, with an enormous negative impact on so many households. During that same period, however, we have seen record profits for oil and gas companies. Shell recorded a profit of $40 billion, its highest in 115 years, while BP’s profits doubled to $28 billion. In that time, we have missed a full year’s opportunity to recoup money from the profits of fossil fuel oligarchs and magnates. These are much-needed funds that could help to ease the burden of the cost of living for many families and households.

In his opening remarks, the Minister conceded that the Government will introduce such a tax but there has been no indication of when that will be or, indeed, of any urgency about it. Will the Minister of State give us on clarity on this? It is essential. The energy bills crisis is an attack on people’s pockets on all fronts. Households’ domestic bills are rising, leaving less and less left over at the end of the month, along with businesses’ overheads. SMEs are finding it harder and harder to pay salaries and energy bills, putting jobs at risk. Throughout the country, we are already seeing closures. I am increasingly hearing from employers that are citing the rising cost of energy as an immediate threat to their business and to the livelihoods of their staff.

Notwithstanding the untargeted cash injections in the form of the energy rebates from the Government, it seems adamantly passive in its role in this crisis. As I said, there is a tacit acceptance that a windfall tax will be introduced but no sense of urgency and no clarity as to when. The Government does not appear willing to press the EU on the timing of a windfall tax and is playing a game of wait and see when it comes to the Energy Charter Treaty. It will not even examine temporarily nationalising the Corrib gas field to control energy prices, as we in the Labour Party have suggested on a number of occasions.

Crucially, it is running down the clock, and is unwilling to take action, on the enormous prices customers in district heating schemes are being charged, with costs for those people continuing to spiral month on month. In my view, district heating exemplifies the Government’s reluctance to face up to private interests, the disjointedness of Government climate and energy policy, and the real-life effects on ordinary households of the failure to act. I have heard from many people in my constituency living in apartment complexes who are paying increasingly high rates of bills, in some cases thousands of euros, for energy they are not even using. For one constituent of mine, her latest bill stood at €1,700 for two months for a family of four. She pays 56.3 cent per kilowatt hour, excluding VAT, yet the Bord Gáis residential rate is 13.13 cent per kilowatt hour, excluding VAT. Through no fault of their own, therefore, and despite cutting down on her energy use, she is overpaying for her family's energy use by a factor of four.

I have made several representations about this issue, but the response has always been merely to reiterate that the regime is under review. One constituent wrote to the office of the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, in recent weeks to ask when she would see change. The response stated that technically it is her supplier who is the purchaser rather than her, giving rise to a commercial rate. We can imagine her reaction to that response. It simply did not pass muster with her, as it would not do with many others who are scrimping and saving to pay bills. If an apartment block's management company is unwilling or unable to renegotiate a contract, the residents are left with these extortionate bills. This is a clear example of Government failure. I urge the Minister of State to accept the motion.

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