Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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86. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment his views on the ways in which energy companies can assist the State and consumers to meet the challenges of escalating energy prices for domestic users; if he will outline the work being undertaken by his Department in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28586/22]

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Nearly 20% of all households in this country are experiencing energy poverty. Up to March, energy prices had gone up by almost 50% in a year.

As the Minister knows this is hitting low-income households throughout the country the hardest. Energy companies, as the Minister knows, have posted hyper-profits this year. What plans has the Minister to ask the energy companies to do more to help the State and help citizens combat the ever-rising costs of keeping the lights and the heating on?

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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As Deputy Nash knows the responsibility for regulation of the electricity market, including the compliance of electricity and gas suppliers with their licence conditions, is a matter for the independent regulator, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU. The CRU was assigned responsibility for that role in the Irish electricity sector following the enactment of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 and subsequent legislation. It is solely accountable to the committee of the Oireachtas for the performance of its functions and not to myself as Minister.

As part of its statutory role the CRU also has consumer protection functions and sets out a number of rules for suppliers to follow in the Electricity and Gas Suppliers Handbooks. These include special provisions for vulnerable customers around areas such as billing and disconnections. The CRU also oversees the supplier-led voluntary Energy Engage Code under which energy suppliers will not disconnect a customer who is engaging with them, must provide every opportunity to customers to avoid disconnection, must identify customers at risk of disconnection and encourage them to engage and are obliged to offer a range of payment options, such as a debt-repayment plan to those in arrears. In addition the National Energy Security Framework, NESF, recently published, tasks the CRU with implementing a package of measures to enhance existing protections for financially vulnerable customers and customers in debt by the third quarter of this year.

Suppliers have also played a key rote in the delivery of a number of governmental measures aimed at supporting people to meet their energy costs. They have a statutory role in implementing the electricity costs emergency benefit scheme where a payment of €200 including VAT went to each household. They were required to implement the reduction of VAT on electricity which has been reduced from 13.5% to 9%. They also have an important role in enabling households to become active energy customers through the clean export guarantee, CEG, to new and existing micro- and small-scale generators. Some suppliers have already advertised that CEG tariff whereby households will be able to export, and eligible micro-generators will start receiving their remuneration for that from 1 July this year depending on their billing cycle. Under the energy efficiency obligation scheme, EEOS, energy suppliers help householders to save energy through measures which include energy upgrades to homes as well as the funding provided by the Government for that important task.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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The Minister's response will be cold comfort to struggling families across the country. We need political leadership on this. The best way the energy companies can help consumers is by Government slapping a windfall tax on the hyper-normal profits of energy companies. It is perverse that there is evidence of massive profit-taking going on at this time when customers are really struggling to make ends meet.

The Minister met the EU Commissioner for energy today and knows that the European Commission has given the green light to EU member states to introduce a windfall tax, if that policy decision is taken, on the super-normal profits of energy companies. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, said in a parliamentary question reply to me in April that his Department was considering such a move and he referenced the fact that the officials of the Minister, Deputy Ryan, were engaged in that work as well. The line at this stage seems to have gone cold. That is not good enough. Italy slapped a 25% tax on energy utilities and Spain similarly. The Tory government in the UK overcame its opposition to a windfall tax on the super-normal profits of energy companies and introduced such a tax last week. Based on the figures the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, has, we could raise €60 million in windfall tax on energy companies to bring 65,000 additional households into the fuel allowance net. That would be a very important move. Notwithstanding what the Minister says about the responsibility of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, we need the kind of political leadership that was shown in Italy and Spain.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Deputy Nash is right, the Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, and his Department have a key role. We are working closely together on a full range of different initiatives, the summer economic statement, the Tax Strategy Group this summer and the work to which I referred in engaging with the social partners. I think the right approach for us is to get a blend and mix of different initiatives that we will need. It is right to get those in place and to design them with real thought and precision, really targeting those who are most at risk and also looking at a range of other tax or other initiatives and measures that we can do to manage this crisis. We have shown on numerous occasions in the last year a willingness to act quickly. It is right for us in this process to do it as part of our budgetary process which has already started. We are active, working together to look at a whole range of options in that regard. We will deliver them in the budget package.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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Has the Minister ruled out a windfall tax in his discussions with the Minister for Finance? Deputy Ryan is the Minister with responsibility for energy. It is interesting that the €200 energy credit was very poorly targeted. I think everybody will agree with that. However, that did not cost the energy companies a red cent. That was derived from borrowing and tax revenue. The ESB, a citizen-owned company, posted €670 million in pretax profits and is paying a €126 million dividend to the Exchequer. It could be paying more and I think the Minister should demand that it pays more. The Irish arm of the company that operates the Corrib gas field, Vermillion Energy Ireland, posted more than Canadian $1 billion in pretax profits last year. Do not let it off the hook, it needs to be in the sights of this Government. We cannot and should not rule out the prospect of a windfall tax on what are hyper-normal profits being posted by the energy companies. I repeat what I said earlier, it is absolutely perverse when people across this country are struggling to make ends meet, when we will have more people in energy poverty this year than we had last year, that these companies are making super-normal profits on the back of this crisis.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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We have been doing targeted measures as well as the likes of the energy credit or the reductions in VAT and excise which apply across the board. So many different Irish householders have been hit. There has also been a very significant increase in the fuel allowance and targeted measures such as the reduction in public transport fares which helped those on lower incomes in particular who often use public transport more. The combination of the energy credit and the fuel allowance increases for more than 300,000 families represents a €604 direct cash benefit in recent months. That was appropriate and right. I would not rule out any other measures. We will have to manage this through next autumn, and winter is going to be a particularly difficult period so I will work with the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, and look at whatever range of measures might be needed to help further.