David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will speak to Financial Resolution No. 2 on the VAT on gas and electricity. Households continue to struggle under the weight of high energy bills. We know that electricity prices over the past three years have increased by almost 50% and gas prices have increased by more than 84%. Irish electricity prices remain among the highest in the European Union. All the while this is happening, the Government has refused to apply a windfall tax on electricity companies, allowing them to keep record profits at the expense of workers and families. Workers and families are seeing their bills go up time and again but there is no windfall tax, as we know, on the electricity companies. Figures released to my party show that 230,000 households were in arrears on their electricity at the end of April. We have provided for electricity credits of €450 for the autumn and winter but the Government really needs to do more with regard to the energy companies themselves. Look at a windfall tax and then make sure the money is ring-fenced to provide greater cost-of-living supports for workers and families.

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