Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, for bringing this motion to the House. Households are struggling to keep their heads above water in this cost-of-living crisis as Government continues to prioritise the profits of energy companies over workers and families at every turn. Average gas and electricity bills have doubled over the last year to the point that the price of electricity here is the highest in Europe and the price of gas is the eighth most expensive. All the while, wholesale prices of gas and electricity have fallen significantly - electricity by half - and yet there is no effort by energy companies to pass these savings on to households.

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At the same time energy companies make eye-watering profits. The number of people living in energy poverty doubled in the past year. We also know that children growing up in poverty will experience significantly more mental and physical health problems than others. One in five Irish homes are now behind in their gas bills. Of the 680,000 people who rely on gas to heat their home, over 152,000 of these people are in arrears at the end of February.

We must also remember that Irish people are also experiencing food price inflation. Global data consultancy, Kantar, has calculated the rate of grocery inflation in Ireland is now 16.4%. If we take this time last year, grocery inflation stood at 2.4%. Over the past 12 months there has been an increase of 14%. If something meaningful is not done by the Government, many people will not be choosing between heating their home or eating as they will not be able to do either.

We in Sinn Féin are calling on the Government to introduce a windfall tax which addresses the eye-watering profits of energy companies. The Government must also must provide financial relief and certainty to households by reducing domestic electricity prices to their pre-Ukraine war levels and capping them at that level, as has been done in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

Under Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and the Green Party, we have witnessed a lack of energy to introduce a windfall tax on big companies. Although it was introduced in October 2022 by the European Council regulation, the Government only mentioned this in November and we are still to see it being introduced as it is still at the legislative stage. We would not even be at that stage only that the European Union brought in this measure. The Government should be introducing windfall taxes on the huge profits made by these energy companies during their peak times of 2022, such as France, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands did, and stand up for hard-pressed families.

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