Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I support this amendment. People are confused. They welcome the reimbursement of three payments of €150 in the budget, as we all do, but the whole system is convoluted. We should be dealing with the price. The amendments tabled tonight are an effort to have more transparency and more accountability from these companies. The Minister of State reminded me earlier that the Government had a windfall tax since July. It has brought in €150 million and this tax will bring in €150 million. It is not small money but it is a pittance in comparison with the massive profits the energy companies have taken from the people who can least afford to pay, including householders and small businesses which are closing by the hour due to costs. Then Government then pats itself on the back for increasing the minimum wage. It has no understanding whatsoever.

Do Ministers not talk to small business owners to understand the difficulties they had, even before the crisis with the oil? The Green Party and the Minister, Deputy Ryan, stopped Shannon LNG, stopped the peat plants and put concrete into the oil pipe at Barryroe, which was an act of national sabotage bordering on treason. We are cutting our noses off to spite our faces. We are dependent on electricity but we will not use gas or oil and we are driving everyone into one area and depending on a pipeline from abroad for energy. That is madness. I do not know what is wrong with the Minister of State and why he cannot think like T.K. Whitaker and those who brought electrification to rural Ireland and turned the lights on. The Government wants to quench the lights in every parish, every hamlet and every household in Ireland. That is what I see. We will be back to candles, Tilley lamps and perhaps carbide lamps. That is where we will be. The Government is penalising the people and refusing to accept reasonable amendments to try to get some manners - that is probably the right word to use - and accountability from these companies.

These companies are delighted with the Government. They must be looking after the Government well. It will have a great Christmas because they are laughing all the way to the bank. As I have said several times, what the Government is doing with these companies is like rubbing butter on a fat sow's you know what - I will not say where. It is enriching them. I cannot understand this and successive governments that have enriched the conglomerates and big companies and are penalising the ordinary daoine beaga, especially daoine aosta. It is shocking. It is sad.

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