Bríd Smith (Dublin South Central, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I disagree strongly with the Chair of the Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Climate Action about the Opposition's position and the idea it is way too harsh and unfair on the Government. It is quite the opposite. It is not harsh enough. What is going on with this Bill is manipulation of the highest order to make it look like there is going to be a tax on the profits and the gains of the recent months but to help them to avoid paying it. When this Bill was discussed at the Oireachtas Committee on Environment and Climate Action, I had concerns, and I expressed them then, about how it would operate and whether it was the ideal mechanism to deal with the energy crisis, the price gouging and the profiteering we have seen. These concerns still stand and are actually worse in this finished Bill.

I have a few questions before I make my political points on some of the measures in the Bill and the measures that are absent from it. First of all, when we discussed the heads of the Bill at the committee, there was an attempt to cover those sectors not engaged in the fossil fuel refining and selling, etc., as distinct from renewables. The idea was that a cap on market revenues would be introduced to capture the profits of all companies, including the renewable energy companies. Where is that proposal, or will there be a different piece of legislation to capture the profits of the renewable energy companies, as distinct from the fossil fuel companies?

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