Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We are talking about windfall gains in the energy sector and deciding how to divvy out the gains from companies that have made windfall profits. This should not be happening at all because the companies should be charging according to what it costs them to make the electricity and taking only a reasonable profit, yet, as we know, they are making massive profits. The Government is trying to divide out their profits and gains to those whom it thinks it should, but it should go to the people who are paying the bills at, for example, 46 cent per kilowatt-hour when they should be paying only 18 cent. This has happened because of the closure of Bord na Móna in the middle of the country, jeopardising the whole energy sector, where a few of these companies are making vast sums and the Government is hoping to get a windfall tax from them to divvy out.

That is very unfair. People are paying massive bills. The Government talks about inflation. The European Central Bank and others are raising their interest rates to counteract inflation, and people are paying extra on their mortgages and will be asked to pay a lot more in the hope of keeping down inflation, but inflation is caused by the cost of energy, whether that is electricity, diesel or petrol. That is where the inflation is caused. These people should not be charging the sums they are charging and should not be making massive profits. The Government then comes from behind to divvy out the gains and impose a windfall tax. That is all wrong. Ordinary people are being hurt every day of the week trying to pay these massive electricity bills, and the Government then comes along trying to be do-gooders who will pay back money to some people, when it has already taken it out of their pockets.

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