Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change) | Oireachtas source

I am happy to be speaking on the Energy (Windfall Gains in the Energy Sector) (Temporary Solidarity Contribution) Bill 2023. I support the introduction of the windfall tax on energy companies. Despite the pressure the Opposition put on the Government a year or 18 months ago, it did not do so then. The Bill clearly does not go far enough. It applies a 75% tax on everything over a 20% annual increase which provides a built-in 20% increase in profit and the company gets to keep 25% on everything else. These are companies which in the middle of an energy price crisis and in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis decided to raise prices even further so they could gouge more profits from already struggling people.

Some 377,400 people in this country were unable to keep their homes warm last year and up to 40% of the population fell into fuel poverty. A huge amount of that pain was down to deliberate decisions by massive corporations to gouge prices and make billions of euro off the back of it. I think we should go after every cent they made given all the pain people felt last winter.

In addition, the Bill does not go far enough because it only targets one sector in a whole system that is engaged in price gouging and profiteering. Earlier this year Oxfam's Survival of the Richest publication reported at least 50% of inflation was caused by price profiteering. It called this as much of a cost-of-profit crisis rather than a cost-of-living crisis.

The European Central Bank has now reported that it also believes that about 50% of inflation has been caused by rising profits. The CSO has reported that Irish company profits are up by 17.7% on this time last year. Food and energy corporations have seen record profits and are making record payouts to their shareholders and billionaire owners. The consumer price index, CPI, for groceries has increased by 13.1% in 12 months with bread, a basic staple, up 18%. Data from supermarket watcher Kantar shows that could be more like 17%.

Meanwhile, 677,000 people are living below the poverty and more than 30% are struggling to make ends meet. This is a deep cost-of-living crisis. On one hand, there are people facing serious hardships that show no sign of letting up. On the other hand, giant corporations are making record profits off the back of increased prices, increased margins and increased profits. That is deeply wrong. This is the kind of situation where any decent government would step in to make sure money that has been gouged out of people's pockets is recovered in full.

Last month, the Taoiseach ruled out a windfall tax on supermarkets. He said he needed proof that there was price gouging. Ask anyone on the street and they will tell you price gouging is going on. If you really need proof, legislation should be brought in forcing these companies to publish profits, so we can get that proof and ensure this never happens again. Every cent these companies have gouged from ordinary people should be taxed and put back into people's pockets.

Points have been made about the privatisation of our energy and our health service and the attempt by Fine Gael and the Labour Party to force people to pay for water, and potentially create water poverty. The news in the past couple of days about Thames Water clearly points out that the position adopted by the mass movement of the Right2Water campaign was absolutely correct. Fine Gael and the Labour Party would have been well on their way to privatisation had they implemented that in 2014 and 2015. Water was privatised as part of Thatcher's era of the neoliberalisation of our services on the basis that they would be more dynamic, and more money would be put into them. In England customer water bills have increased by 40% above the rate of inflation. Thames Water is £55 billion in debt, versus £65 billion in dividends paid out to its board. I am pleased that the people of Ireland stood up against the attempt of the Government. What we need now is a referendum to keep our water as a public service.

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