Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have been a long time waiting for this legislation. When I saw this Bill in our office this week, I presumed it was the legislation relating to energy credits. I find it amazing that we are still dealing with this Bill, but we are, and with these amendments back from the Seanad. It must be a month at this stage since we dealt with this Bill here previously. It must be borne in mind that when we debated this legislation then, I wanted us to be tighter on the timelines and to be making more aggressive commitments in terms of such timelines, but we are now seeking to cut even more slack and to push back by a month the making of returns and of payments.

I make the broad point that this is deeply frustrating. People are in urgent need of support. They urgently need to have confidence in our energy system and energy markets in respect of there being accountability and some degree of equity and fairness in the system. I refer to exorbitant, super-excess profits being seen as unfair and, as such, being tackled and captured and redistributed.

I just wanted to put that on the record. When will this legislation be enacted and when will people see the benefit of this windfall tax being distributed?

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