Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am disappointed that the senior Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is not present for this important motion tabled by the Social Democrats. The motion calls, as ours did last November, for a windfall tax, or what we termed: "an excess profit "solidarity tax", as provided for in EU regulation 2022/1854 upon all/any companies and permanent establishments operating within the oil, gas, coal and refinery sectors in Ireland, which include the Corrib gas field, and give these funds back to consumers to help pay for energy bills". Unfortunately, Ireland cannot obtain tax revenues from companies that do not operate here, such as Chevron or Exxon Mobil, but we can raise extra tax and revenues from oil and gas companies that operate here and we fully support that.

With gas and electricity prices at record highs, there has been much talk of a windfall tax on energy companies as a way to address the energy crisis and, thankfully, our motion on this last year won the support of the Dáil. However, we need an update from the Government as to how we are coming closer to implementation following the announced limit on the revenues of non-gas energy generators at €120 per MWh for wind and solar generation and €180 per MWh for oil- and coal-fired generation.

There are a few things the Government can do to help households this winter. First, it should commit to keeping the 9% VAT rate on gas and electricity indefinitely, or even reduce it to 5%. That rate is due to revert to 13.5% soon. When people talk about the winners from the energy crisis, they forget the Government is one of them. VAT is levied on the net price of goods and services so, as the cost of gas, petrol, diesel and electricity has gone up, so has the Government’s tax take. It also needs to make plans for another energy credit to be paid to all householders this spring and summer and to look at taking a greater dividend from the ESB next year, which would help pay for the energy credits.

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