Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am as eager as the Deputy to see these reductions passed on and that is why we are legislating for unfair profits. I have met the ESB and Bord Gáis and my Department continues to meet them. I am sure the Minister does as well, although I have not spoken to him on it. We will be legislating for this in the coming weeks. The amount of money that is expected to be raised is between €280 million and €600 million, a significant amount of money, and all of that money is legally ring-fenced for electricity consumers. That is only part of it. We extended the 9% rate for electricity and gas VAT last week, which is the lowest rate of VAT we have ever had on energy in this country. We have a range of welfare benefits, extra payments and then the windfall tax on top of that. A number of approaches have been taken, therefore. I see that two electricity companies have cut their rates but I expect the others to follow suit as soon as possible.

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