Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá teaghlaigh ag streachailt faoin ngéarchéim costas maireachtála le breis agus bliain. Tá praghsanna fuinnimh do theaghlaigh ag dul suas go fóill, in ainneoin go bhfuil titim ar chostais do sholáthróirí. Tá an Rialtas ag diúltú dul i ngleic leis an mbrabús ollmhór a rinne na comhlachtaí fuinnimh anuraidh agus praghsanna leictreachais a laghdú agus teorainn a chur leo, mar atá déanta ar fud na hEorpa. Households have been struggling under a cost-of-living crisis for well over a year now. When inflation skyrocketed last year, the causes were clear: the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine and the reopening of the global economy following the pandemic. However, since then, things have changed. In March, the European Central Bank revealed that corporate profiteering has been a key driver of inflation. In the past two years electricity prices have doubled.

Despite wholesale electricity prices having fallen by more than 50% in the past year, prices for households have not budged and remain sky high. Prices have plunged for energy suppliers, but their customers continue to face extortionate bills. A constituent recently contacted me. Her recent electricity bill was over €620. She earns less than €250 per week. In her own words:

I’m just keeping my head above water. I need some help. Please help me. I just can’t do it any more.

Another constituent recently contacted me after being hit with an electricity bill of €1,100. These are eye-watering prices. What should not be tolerated as workers and families struggle, is that eye-watering profits are made by these companies, but this Government is happy to protect the windfall profits that energy companies have made. We know that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, opposed taxing the windfall profits of the energy sector for several months. The Government only made a U-turn when forced to do so and embarrassed into doing so by the European Commission.

One element of the Government’s proposed tax on windfall profits, the cap on market revenues, will leave the windfall profits made by non-gas electricity generators untouched for all of 2022, bar December. This is despite the fact that the bulk of windfall profits were made in that period. In April, a representative of the European Commission told the Committee on Environment and Climate Action that there is nothing stopping this Government from taxing the windfall profits of energy companies made before December, as has been done in Austria, France and Belgium. As households suffer from extortionate bills, this Government has decided to leave those obscene profits untouched.

Not only has this Government been weak on tackling the windfall profits of energy companies, it has refused to tackle high energy prices. Recent data, published by the Austrian and Hungarian regulators, found that Irish electricity prices were the highest in Europe; 72% higher than the EU average. This is shocking and unacceptable. Despite repeated calls from Sinn Féin, this Government has refused to reduce electricity prices. It has refused, point blank, to act when Irish householders are paying the price.

In Germany the price of electricity has been reduced and capped from January of this year to April 2024. In the Netherlands, the price of electricity has been reduced and capped for all of 2023. In Austria, the price of electricity has been reduced and capped from January of this year to June 2024. A similar electricity price cap has been introduced in France, Poland and elsewhere. I could go on. Citizens in these member states have been provided with certainty and relief. Irish citizens have been denied such protection and instead fed disinformation from the Government.

Reducing and capping electricity prices is the right thing to do, which is why it is being done in state after state right across Europe. As wholesale prices fall, reducing and capping electricity prices can ensure that energy companies are unable to profiteer at the expense of struggling households. This can be done on a temporary basis monitored by the regulator while it is in place. However, the Government has refused to act. It has refused to follow the example of Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and many other European partners, just as it refused to tackle the windfall profits enjoyed by these companies. It is time to change that. That is why our motion proposes the introduction of a windfall tax that captures the profit made right through 2022, for electricity prices to be capped and to be reduced, to reverse the recent hike in carbon tax and to give the regulator new powers to address standing charges and address possible price gouging in the sector.

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