Réada Cronin (Kildare North, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak on this Stage of the Bill. I do not want to sound rude or anything like that, because I know the Minister of State is a very mild-mannered Minister, but it really is about time that we had this Bill.

I also want to say that there is something perverse about the term "windfall" being associated with the provision of energy, which is an essential service, when the users of those services are paying penal prices for it, just to keep the light and heat on in their homes and businesses. Everyone knows that we are in an emergency situation, and that we have long been in an emergency situation. That is, everybody except the Government, which from the outset, has been way too lax, and way too late in addressing this bonkers bonanza for providers. That is all while people in Celbridge, Naas and Leixlip are afraid to put on the heat and the light. That is the case even in a town called "Prosperous".

This Bill has taken far too long and does not do enough for the people who have been hammered by shocking energy prices, while wholesale gas prices have fallen back to where they were in late 2021. This too-little-too-late approach exposes the warped priorities of this Government. It is a case of profit first and the people and their essential needs an extremely poor second. Some 19 countries managed to introduce the windfall tax before we did. Some 19 governments saw how energy prices were crucifying working families and they made it their priority to give them a hand. The Government is first up when it comes to guaranteeing bankers' bonuses, but when it comes to a windfall tax on vast profits on what are essential services for the people, it is last, and even when it comes, the Bill just does not seem to go far enough. It does not address the period of peak profits.

The Minister of State should not say to us: "We would love to, but we couldn't." The Government could but it did not, by failing to tax on time and not making it retrospective when it did introduce the measure. Other governments managed to do it, so we could have done it too. Other governments found a way because they had the will to do it. The EU has given us a lot of flexibility, which I am sure the Minister of State will admit.

It has given huge discretion but the Government is choosing to protect the exorbitant profits made on the essentials of heat and light instead of protecting and giving a bit of human comfort and political dignity to the people who use these essential services and depend on them for living every day. This Bill has to do vastly more to make it vastly better.

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