Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Social Democrats for this timely motion. As my party colleague and party leader, Deputy Bacik, said, the Labour Party brought a motion to the floor of this House in January 2022, more than 12 months ago, demanding action on what was then a cost-of-living challenge, which very quickly became a cost-of-living crisis. The Minister of State will recall that motion was tabled a month before Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine, when the cost-of-living challenge was clear. The rate of inflation was already on the rise, including in respect of energy costs. There was clear evidence at the time that energy companies were, even before Putin's illegal invasion of Ukraine, posting extraordinary profits as bills for customers continued to climb without showing any sign of abating.

We called then, because of the super-profits companies had posted in 2021, for the imposition of a windfall tax on the hyper-profits of energy companies. That was well over a year ago, before the invasion of Ukraine. Ministers played a game of cat and mouse with me for several months until last summer, when they finally agreed that the proposition of a windfall tax on the excessive profits of energy companies ought to be introduced. That was a full six months after the Labour Party had first called formally in this Chamber for the introduction of such a regime.

In the meantime, of course, bills rose endlessly. There were between 50 and 60 electricity bill increases in that period. That picture grates with people because, for example, the owner of Bord Gáis, Centrica, is on course to triple its profits for this financial year to almost €1.8 billion. Revenue at the Corrib gas field, for the first nine months of 2022, was up €1.3 billion. Likewise, profits at the ESB soared last year, with revenue up by €1.5 billion to June 2022 compared with the same period in 2021. What really grates is that Electric Ireland, a company owned by the ESB, increased its electricity prices by more than 11 cent per unit last August, and this is the same company that told us yesterday that even though wholesale prices are reducing, it could be 18 to 24 months before bills get back to what we might describe as normal. We can understand, therefore, the public anger and frustration as to the delays in introducing a windfall tax on the hyper-profits of these extraordinarily profitable companies, which continue to raise their prices and hammer consumers. Why the delay? It is extraordinary.

Austria, on 18 November 2022, introduced a windfall tax, while the Czech Republic did so on 4 November 2022. Greece, on 3 November 2022, established a 90% windfall tax on energy companies to be used to help its citizens to pay rising energy bills.

Portugal proposed a 33% windfall tax on excess profits on 21 December 2022. Romania did so on 28 December; Slovakia on 22 December; and the Tory party in the UK, a party that did not want to introduce a windfall tax in the first place, introduced taxes on excess profits. When is the Government going to move? When will it provide the resources that we need to insulate people as best we can from the worst excesses of this problem?

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