Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Doherty for bringing forward this timely and important motion. It is clear that Government can and must do more to protect energy customers. We have only to look at the recent reports which point to an increase of 135% in the number of people unable to heat their homes. According to the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, more than 40% of households are now estimated to be living in fuel poverty. Some 25% of parents have had to cut down on household bills, such as gas and electricity, in order to afford food for their families. Consumer energy bills have increased to, on average, €4,300 per year. Those in arrears number in excess of 282,000 for domestic electricity and in excess of 140,000 for domestic gas - in excess of 20% of domestic gas customers. At the same time, Shell's profits doubled to €36 billion in 2022. ExxonMobile made a staggering €51.5 billion profit in 2022 which equates to a profit of €5.8 million every hour. Profits at the Corrib gas field trebled in the first six months of 2022 to an estimated €560 million. In the first six months of 2022, the ESB's profits more than tripled to €390 million. Operating profits at Bord Gáis Energy increased by 74% in the first six months of 2022. While hiking charges for ordinary customers, Centrica, or Bord Gáis, said its earnings in 2022 will be eight times its 2021 earnings in total. In addition, Energia increased its profits by 50% in 2022. These are staggering and eye-watering statistics and it is clear that the greatest intervention a government can make to protect consumers is a windfall tax coupled with an energy cap or break. The Government, instead, has resisted those moves at every turn. That has significant consequences and comes at a significant cost.

Initially, when this Government estimated the potential impact from a windfall tax, it said it could bring in in the region of €1.9 billion based on the huge profits in 2022, in particular. Let us not forget that gas prices were in a place where they had never been before. There was a huge potential for Ireland. Of course, we are very limited in terms of fossil fuel companies, in that we have only Corrib, but the huge potential for Ireland is from the amount of renewables on our grid. We have such a weak windfall tax in relation to that. As confirmed to me in a reply to a parliamentary question today, it will run from December 2022 to June of this year. We are missing all of the considerable profits they had dating back to 2021. It is a disgrace and is directly linked the Minister and the Government delaying taking action.

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