Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, not only on all the work he has put into this Private Members' motion, but on trying to combat energy poverty and deprivation over the past months. For more than five months now I have been highlighting the need to tax electricity companies for the obscene profits and to put that money towards reducing people's bills. Sinn Féin has been warning that since the electricity price system is broken, and it has been broken since November 2021 or even before that, households have seen record profits being made by energy companies while individuals struggle to pay enormous bills. Government failed to act and even opposed reform at EU level. Instead, artificially high prices were left unchecked, allowing electricity companies to rake in profits. The EU eventually forced the Government into just tweaking the system but that did not even kick in until December 2022, while electricity companies lined their pockets for more than a year between the time when I called on the Government to act and when limited reforms were made.

The transfer of wealth from household to corporate profit hurts the elderly, workers and families and it has huge implications on people's lives. It also destroys local economies and negatively impacts on the domestic economy. I questioned the Minister, Deputy Ryan, for months on this issue. Every time, he assured me that electricity profits would be taxed for 2022, and it is all on the record. On 28 February this year, the Taoiseach stated that there would a tax specifically on electricity generators. He said the tax raised on generators would be used to bring down prices for businesses and for households and that it would apply to profits made in 2022. If the Minister and the Taoiseach thought they could make false promises and wait for this problem to go away, then that really is politics at its most cynical.

People are really desperate. We have to separate the issue of fuel poverty and the impact it has from fuel deprivation which is not counted at all. I refer to the number of people who are just going without because they are frightened to heat their homes and of the bills.

I refer to the amount of money held by these companies. I was overcharged €800. It was just taken out of my bank account. People are left without any money at the end of the month because the companies just come along and take what they deem is fit. Let me say that trying to get that money back is an onerous task, and I have personal experience of it. How much of the money held by these energy companies belongs to people who are really hard pressed and in really difficult situations?

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