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

I, too, support this amendment. Again, I refer to the obscene profits the companies have made and will continue to make. There is no reigning in or genuine monitoring by the regulator, who does not seem to be in action at all at any point in time. It is totally unfair. The Government is driving all consumers in the direction of electricity and they have only one route to go if they want to keep warm or keep the light on. The Government is telling them they must get electric cars as well and that everything must be electric. The Government is driving them towards a select few developers. Wherever they are getting their funding from, they are being well seen to by the Government.

It should not be the case that people are allowed to take so much profit and then the Government comes back and gives people credits. People should not have to pay in the first place. I know as well as all other people in business that Friday evening comes quickly. I do not know whether any members of the Government have employed people at any point in their lives. It does not seem that the Government is on the side of business or that it understands that businesses have to pay for everything and abide by all the rules and regulations. At the same time, people have been and are being overcharged for electricity. We are debating how to derive more taxes. The Government calls it windfall tax. It is the people who pay for it. The constituents we are representing, the people we are asking to vote for us, have to pay the piper. It is wrong we are even discussing windfall tax. It should not be happening when we have a regulator, a Minister who is supposed to be in charge of the regulator and a Government the Minister is part of. The whole thing is spiralling out of control. The energy providers will rule the roost the way we are going because there is no reining them in. No demands are placed on them by the regulator.

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