Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I move:

That Dáil Éireann:

recognises that unsustainably high energy bills continue to put workers and families under significant financial pressure;

notes that:

— the average cost of gas and electricity bills has doubled over the last year;

— the price of electricity in Ireland is the highest in Europe, and the price of gas is the eighth most expensive according to a European Household Energy Price Index;

— the number of people living in energy poverty has doubled over the last year, and at its peak was reported to be at a record breaking high of 40 per cent;

— one in five Irish homes are now behind on their gas bills, of those 679,000 people rely on gas to heat their homes, and 139,785 were in arrears at the end of December, with this rising to 152,276 by the end of February; and

— wholesale gas and electricity prices have fallen significantly, yet there have been no efforts to pass this on to consumers, in addition wholesale electricity prices have dropped by 50.5 per cent in the last year, a decrease of 8.7 per cent since February;

further notes that:

— there is inadequate regulation in the energy market;

— the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) lacks the regulatory power, resources and mandate to adequately regulate the energy market;

— there is an increasing trend for energy companies to use standing charges to increase their profitability, and in some cases, the increase was more than €300, and the CRU does not have the legislative remit to address standing charges; and

— two of the State's largest energy providers, Electric Ireland and Bord Gáis Energy, have recently made blunders in their billing process, putting thousands of workers and families in even more financial hardship during a raging cost-of-living crisis;

regrets that:

— on 1st May, the Government have again chosen to increase the carbon tax, which has increased the cost of home heating oil, peat briquettes and natural gas for household use for workers and families;

— the Government have prioritised the profits of energy companies over workers and families at every turn, and their efforts to shield consumers from rising energy costs are weak and comparatively thin when compared to other European Union (EU) member states;

— the Government has also failed to introduce electricity price caps when they are commonplace amongst many EU member states;

— the Government measures to address windfall gains in the energy sector are wholly inadequate, and despite the European Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 coming into effect in October, the Government did not make an announcement until November and legislation was not introduced until late March, for which we are still at the stage of pre-legislative scrutiny;

— the Government blocked attempts to introduce a windfall tax, only doing so when compelled to do so when the EU, as a whole, did so through the introduction of regulation 2022/1854 to address windfall gains in the energy market;

— the regulation does not go far enough to address these windfall gains, and with reference to the cap on market revenues in particular, the regulation does not provide for member states to address the periods where they were at their peak; and

— the Irish Government has elected to introduce the cap on market revenues for the minimum period of December 2022 to June 2023, while other EU member states have recognised the weakness in the regulatory measure and introduced taxes to address their super-profits, with Austria, France, the Netherlands and Belgium all having introduced taxes which enable them to address the super-profits earned in the summer, and similarly Germany and Poland have introduced other levies which address profits in the period after the regulatory measure ends; and

calls on the Government to:

— introduce a windfall tax which addresses the super-profits of energy companies when they were at their peak in 2022;

— provide financial relief and certainty to households by reducing electricity prices for households to their pre-Ukraine War levels, and capping them at that level as done in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands;

— reverse the increase in carbon tax; and

— introduce new regulatory powers for the CRU, including the legislative remit to address standing charges, to review practices of hedging and investigate possible instances of price gouging, and ensure that it is resourced to do so.

If we could find one word to describe the past year in our energy sector, it would be "chaos". Prices surged, profits soared and people suffered. Last week, we learned that Ireland's electricity prices are the highest in Europe, while wholesale prices have fallen sharply. The Government has not done enough to protect people, instead choosing at every turn to resist progressive reforms with the knock-on effect of protecting the obscene super-profits of energy companies. This motion seeks to right those wrongs. Energy poverty is at some of the highest levels ever recorded, having doubled in the past year. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul told the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands today that 377,000 people are now living in energy poverty. All of this happens while the profits of energy companies have risen to eye-watering and unprecedented levels. It is galling and unjust. It is clear that something is going very wrong here and that the system is not fit for purpose. Energy companies have free reign to run rough shod over their customers. This motion will not only provide people with the relief and certainty they so urgently need, it will also put forward solutions that will address the absolute state of disarray in the energy sector.

Price caps are an accepted and sensible measure to address the runaway prices of energy. This Government would prefer to paint it as a drastic measure that is some sort of international outlier. The Government will point to Britain as if we in Sinn Féin would propose measures mirroring the approach of its Tory counterparts across the water. The fact is that amongst many EU states, price caps are commonplace, having being introduced successfully in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and elsewhere. A temporary electricity price cap is a necessary reprieve people need to avoid disaster. That is why Sinn Féin is proposing this three-month measure until July, at an estimated cost of €530 million. Our motion also seeks to follow the example of our EU neighbours and go beyond the narrow EU regulation on windfall taxes and temporary solidarity contributions, recognising that it fails to address the obscene superprofits earned last summer, especially in the renewable energy sector. The Government will present its efforts as if it is doing the most it can, but that is not the case. Other EU states have introduced windfall taxes that target these eye-watering superprofits prior to December 2022 and go beyond June 2023. That is exactly what this motion sets out to do: to restore some semblance of fairness and balance.

However, we should not be surprised that this Government is bringing forward a weak windfall tax. Let us not forget that the former Minister for Finance, Deputy Donohoe, made it very clear that he opposed windfall taxes as late as last summer. This Government has only moved to do the bare minimum when compelled to do so by narrow EU regulation. It is too little, too late. It is not good enough for pensioners paying bills of more than €1,600; single mothers regularly skipping meals so they can keep the lights on or the renters who are also facing sky-high rents. Instead of pathetic online petitions and endless hot air from Ministers, it is time Government held energy companies to account.

We know that wholesale prices have fallen below pre-war levels but consumer prices remain sky high. People are outraged and demand answers. Energy companies point to their hedging strategy and Government acts like a mouthpiece for them. It is even in the Government's amendment. The Government keeps saying it will bring the issue to energy companies. It will not just be polite encouragement, the Taoiseach said in February. Yesterday, three months later, the Minister, Deputy McGrath, said he needed a better explanation. I am sure the energy companies were quaking in their boots. The Government is merely acting as a commentator when action is needed. The regulator, the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, CRU, does not even have the power to address standing charges, again a measure that is common among EU member states.

This motion seeks to correct this absolute lack of power and scrutiny and reduce the risk of profiteering while ordinary people struggle to make ends meet. It proposes to reverse this Government's punitive move to increase the carbon tax. What the Minister, Deputy Ryan, and this Government continually fail to recognise is that the transition away from fossil fuels must be just. I call on the Government and the Opposition to support this motion to provide relief, quell the chaos and reduce rip-off energy bills.

Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Tá teaghlaigh ag streachailt faoin ngéarchéim costas maireachtála le breis agus bliain. Tá praghsanna fuinnimh do theaghlaigh ag dul suas go fóill, in ainneoin go bhfuil titim ar chostais do sholáthróirí. Tá an Rialtas ag diúltú dul i ngleic leis an mbrabús ollmhór a rinne na comhlachtaí fuinnimh anuraidh agus praghsanna leictreachais a laghdú agus teorainn a chur leo, mar atá déanta ar fud na hEorpa. Households have been struggling under a cost-of-living crisis for well over a year now. When inflation skyrocketed last year, the causes were clear: the illegal Russian invasion of Ukraine and the reopening of the global economy following the pandemic. However, since then, things have changed. In March, the European Central Bank revealed that corporate profiteering has been a key driver of inflation. In the past two years electricity prices have doubled.

Despite wholesale electricity prices having fallen by more than 50% in the past year, prices for households have not budged and remain sky high. Prices have plunged for energy suppliers, but their customers continue to face extortionate bills. A constituent recently contacted me. Her recent electricity bill was over €620. She earns less than €250 per week. In her own words:

I’m just keeping my head above water. I need some help. Please help me. I just can’t do it any more.

Another constituent recently contacted me after being hit with an electricity bill of €1,100. These are eye-watering prices. What should not be tolerated as workers and families struggle, is that eye-watering profits are made by these companies, but this Government is happy to protect the windfall profits that energy companies have made. We know that the Minister, Deputy Donohoe, opposed taxing the windfall profits of the energy sector for several months. The Government only made a U-turn when forced to do so and embarrassed into doing so by the European Commission.

One element of the Government’s proposed tax on windfall profits, the cap on market revenues, will leave the windfall profits made by non-gas electricity generators untouched for all of 2022, bar December. This is despite the fact that the bulk of windfall profits were made in that period. In April, a representative of the European Commission told the Committee on Environment and Climate Action that there is nothing stopping this Government from taxing the windfall profits of energy companies made before December, as has been done in Austria, France and Belgium. As households suffer from extortionate bills, this Government has decided to leave those obscene profits untouched.

Not only has this Government been weak on tackling the windfall profits of energy companies, it has refused to tackle high energy prices. Recent data, published by the Austrian and Hungarian regulators, found that Irish electricity prices were the highest in Europe; 72% higher than the EU average. This is shocking and unacceptable. Despite repeated calls from Sinn Féin, this Government has refused to reduce electricity prices. It has refused, point blank, to act when Irish householders are paying the price.

In Germany the price of electricity has been reduced and capped from January of this year to April 2024. In the Netherlands, the price of electricity has been reduced and capped for all of 2023. In Austria, the price of electricity has been reduced and capped from January of this year to June 2024. A similar electricity price cap has been introduced in France, Poland and elsewhere. I could go on. Citizens in these member states have been provided with certainty and relief. Irish citizens have been denied such protection and instead fed disinformation from the Government.

Reducing and capping electricity prices is the right thing to do, which is why it is being done in state after state right across Europe. As wholesale prices fall, reducing and capping electricity prices can ensure that energy companies are unable to profiteer at the expense of struggling households. This can be done on a temporary basis monitored by the regulator while it is in place. However, the Government has refused to act. It has refused to follow the example of Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and many other European partners, just as it refused to tackle the windfall profits enjoyed by these companies. It is time to change that. That is why our motion proposes the introduction of a windfall tax that captures the profit made right through 2022, for electricity prices to be capped and to be reduced, to reverse the recent hike in carbon tax and to give the regulator new powers to address standing charges and address possible price gouging in the sector.

Thomas Gould (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein)
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It was announced last week that we now have the highest energy prices in Europe. Our cost of housing was found to be 88% higher than the EU average and prices across the board were 40% higher, but wages do not match up. Ireland's low-income earners earn far less than their European counterparts. One in five Irish homes are now behind in paying their gas bills. These people are terrified. They are going into debt with bills stacking up on them and they need help. They need a small bit of support and that is what we are asking for now. We are asking for the Government to go back and say, "We can't do everything, but we'll do something", but it is doing nothing in my opinion.

We are entering the time when families look forward to schools being off. Does the Minister know how difficult it is for them? I have spoken to families who cannot send their kids to summer camp. They are cutting back by not going on holidays or reducing what they are doing for the summer. They cannot afford childcare when their kids will be off and they will be at work. These are the real costs that actual families and people are facing. The Government has a chance now to support families and to support those people who are struggling.

A windfall tax as was implemented in other European countries would see the huge profits from energy companies brought back to the State. Last year the rising prices for ordinary families were just unbelievable. The ESB, our own ESB, made a profit of €649 million, double what it made in 2021. We need to bring energy prices down because people need support. Today, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul outlined that 377,000 people are in energy poverty. We always knew Fine Gael would back big business and we knew Fianna Fáil would back big business but some people had faith in the Green Party holding the line. However, it has completely capitulated. When ordinary people needed support, they thought the Green Party would be there, but it has gone down the same road as Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael by looking after big business and forgetting about ordinary people.

Patricia Ryan (Kildare South, Sinn Fein)
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I thank my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, for bringing this motion before the Dáil. We are facing a cost-of-living crisis in this State and one of the biggest contributors driving folks into energy poverty is the burden of rip-off energy bills. Energy poverty is a major problem in every constituency and it is only getting worse. Many families are forced to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table, which is not acceptable. We need to ensure that everyone has access to affordable energy regardless of their income. This is a clear example of how the market is not working for the people and the Government needs to take action to address this issue. Let me be clear: the Government is not doing enough to address the issue.

Despite falling wholesale prices, we have seen soaring profits for companies like Energia and Bord Gáis Éireann, while at the same time many families are experiencing energy poverty. That is why Sinn Féin is calling for the introduction of a windfall tax that is fit for purpose and captures the super-excess profits of energy companies in quarter 2 and quarter 3 of 2022. These companies have been making enormous excess profits at the expense of hard-working families and it is time for them to pay their fair share.

Some of our EU neighbours have helped households by capping electricity prices at the pre-Ukraine war levels but yet again, the Government has failed to act in this regard. Its delay in introducing a windfall tax has served to protect the profiteering of large energy companies. In addition, the recent increase in the carbon tax has only served to exacerbate the problem with low-income households in particular suffering as a result. It is now that families are dealing with huge energy bills. The Government cannot continue to ignore the situation on the ground and the struggle of folks to pay these bills. I ask the Government to act now and, by supporting our motion, provide financial relief to struggling families.

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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In fairness, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, cannot be held responsible for global fluctuations in energy prices but he can and he does bear responsibility for the Government's failure to get to grips with it and with the failure to properly support families who have been financially crippled by it. The truth is that Irish families were already stretched to breaking point. This country has long had some of the highest rents, mortgage interest rates, insurance costs and fuel prices in Europe but now the geniuses who make up this current Government have managed to oversee a new record. We are now paying the highest electricity prices in Europe. There was a time when we were almost the lowest. Irish customers are paying 72% above the EU average.

When prices were increasing, it was always down to global factors and international influences but when wholesale prices come down, Ministers tell us it is down to peculiarities in the Irish situation, which means that Irish families must be crippled. The truth is that the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and his Cabinet colleagues have not had the guts or the inclination to actually face down the energy companies. My fear is that there are some within government who are quite happy to see Irish customers fleeced by high energy costs. How else can we explain that this week they have overseen another increase implemented by the Government in many energy costs through another hike in the carbon tax?

When measures are put forward that might give families and workers a break, the Government resists them. When there were efforts to decouple energy from gas prices at European level, it was the Irish Government that frustrated those efforts. When there were efforts to tax the obscene profits being made by energy companies, it was the Irish Government that resisted them. Now that measures have been taken at an EU level, it is the Irish Government that is actually acting in the most minimalist way possible.

The motion tabled by Deputies O'Rourke and Doherty takes a very different tack. It is about putting people ahead of energy companies. It is about recognising the stresses that people are going through. It is about saying that Irish people cannot be expected to take the entire burden that has been put on them and that we will not tolerate the excuse of international conflicts or international factors when we know that there are domestic measures that can be taken here at home and that are being taken in many other European states that would provide our workers and our families with the break they so desperately need. I commend the motion to the House.

Johnny Guirke (Meath West, Sinn Fein)
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I thank my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, for bringing this motion to the House. Households are struggling to keep their heads above water in this cost-of-living crisis as Government continues to prioritise the profits of energy companies over workers and families at every turn. Average gas and electricity bills have doubled over the last year to the point that the price of electricity here is the highest in Europe and the price of gas is the eighth most expensive. All the while, wholesale prices of gas and electricity have fallen significantly - electricity by half - and yet there is no effort by energy companies to pass these savings on to households.

6 o’clock

At the same time energy companies make eye-watering profits. The number of people living in energy poverty doubled in the past year. We also know that children growing up in poverty will experience significantly more mental and physical health problems than others. One in five Irish homes are now behind in their gas bills. Of the 680,000 people who rely on gas to heat their home, over 152,000 of these people are in arrears at the end of February.

We must also remember that Irish people are also experiencing food price inflation. Global data consultancy, Kantar, has calculated the rate of grocery inflation in Ireland is now 16.4%. If we take this time last year, grocery inflation stood at 2.4%. Over the past 12 months there has been an increase of 14%. If something meaningful is not done by the Government, many people will not be choosing between heating their home or eating as they will not be able to do either.

We in Sinn Féin are calling on the Government to introduce a windfall tax which addresses the eye-watering profits of energy companies. The Government must also must provide financial relief and certainty to households by reducing domestic electricity prices to their pre-Ukraine war levels and capping them at that level, as has been done in Germany, Austria and the Netherlands.

Under Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, and the Green Party, we have witnessed a lack of energy to introduce a windfall tax on big companies. Although it was introduced in October 2022 by the European Council regulation, the Government only mentioned this in November and we are still to see it being introduced as it is still at the legislative stage. We would not even be at that stage only that the European Union brought in this measure. The Government should be introducing windfall taxes on the huge profits made by these energy companies during their peak times of 2022, such as France, Austria, Belgium and the Netherlands did, and stand up for hard-pressed families.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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This Government is just as concerned about protecting Irish householders in what is a very difficult time. We all absolutely accept that those households, in respect of their gas and electricity bills, are facing huge increases which have a huge impact on every family across the country and we are determined to protect them and to help our country through a difficult time.

It bears repeating that the causes of this lie in international factors as well as our dependence on fossil fuels. This means that it hits particularly hard here in Ireland because we use so much gas in generating electricity, in heating our homes and in powering our industry. It is that reliance on fossil fuels which is the underlying cause, together with the characteristics of the Irish market.

First and foremost, the prices in the past two years shot up because of the war in Ukraine where Russia used the supply of gas as a weapon of war. This had knock-on consequences, obviously, for the people Ukraine but also for the 450 million citizens across Europe and the wider rest of the world who have all seen a dramatic increase in prices because of those gas prices, in the first instance, going up to something like 13 times their historic average. These prices are still, while they have reduced from that high, some two and a half to three times their historic averages.

That is the cause of the problem and is the underlying issue we have to tackle. I want to set out today some of the measures by which we will do that and have protected our people, which we will continue to do. The measures we have developed are in direct cash payments and in targeted social welfare payments, as well as interventions like the introduction of a windfall tax, which we will introduce at a rate which is far higher than any other European government. We will introduce tax on the non-gas producing electricity supply companies at a rate which is far below; in other words the profits going to the relevant companies will be far less than they would be in other jurisdictions, contrary to what we have just heard.

First, I will set out some of the details of what has been happening and what we as a Government and the regulator have been doing to try to protect Irish householders at this time. The price increases were not ever due to Government or regulatory decisions. The immediate factor was that spike which happened as early as the first half, mid-term, in 2020, when we started to see the prices increasing. Data supplied by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, indicate that average electricity and gas household bills have increased to a combined total of over €4,000 a year. At its peak, as I have said, in August last year wholesale gas prices on the UK gas spot market were trading at over 600p per therm, a 13-times multiple of the pre-pandemic level of 50p per therm. Due to high gas storage levels, warmer than normal winter conditions and policy efforts to reduce natural gas demand across Europe, wholesale gas prices have fallen dramatically and are currently below the peak values of last year. However, wholesale gas prices are still trading at approximately 120p per therm which is, as I said, two and a half times their historic pre-pandemic levels.

Ireland is a price taker on international markets. This means that Ireland has faced a particular challenge in this crisis. Irish electricity and gas prices have historically been higher than other EU countries due to long-standing factors such as geographical isolation, our dispersed population, our fossil fuel dependency and our small market scale.

In-line with high wholesale prices, household electricity and gas prices rose steeply in the final quarter of last year and have remained elevated since. The recent reduction in wholesale gas prices in Europe is welcome, however prices remain significantly higher than pre-crisis levels. With wholesale energy costs accounting for a significant percentage of total supplier costs, a sustained period of falling wholesale gas prices, will lead to retail market price reductions.

However, hedging by suppliers that results in a significant proportion of energy purchased over several months in advance, may impact the ability of suppliers to reduce prices, notwithstanding the decline in the wholesale cost of gas.

Yes, we will look at and talk to every company to ensure that they advance the cuts as quickly as possible. It is not something, however, that one can completely ignore or click one’s fingers and ignore the reality in the market where companies do typically hedge some 12 to 18 months in advance. That is why it will take time, as in other countries not just in Ireland but across Europe, for those retail prices to come down. We, like everybody else in this House, look forward to promote, deliver and to try to achieve that in whatever way we can but not by promising the impossible.

I want to now set out the response of Government to that cost-of-living crisis including the measures we have taken to keep our citizens warm and well over the past 12 months. We introduced a €2.4 billion package of supports during last year and an additional package of one-off measures worth €2.5 billion in budget 2023. In February of this year, we announced a further €1.2 billion package to help families, businesses, pensioners, carers and people with disabilities to cope with the rising cost of living. Through the first and the second electricity costs emergency benefit schemes, over 2.1 million households will have automatically received €800 of income support through their electricity bill at a total cost of €1.59 billion between the first quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of 2023. Approximately 99% of all eligible customers will have had the credit applied to their account. That worked and had an immediate effect in each of the instances in which it was applied in reducing the number of houses which were late with their payments. It also had the real benefit that it was low-cost, effective, easy to deliver and it worked. It worked, in particular, along with social welfare payments which protected those who were most vulnerable. One has to target what supports one has in this instance, in my mind, rather than a universal cap which would benefit every household. We did, do, should and will ensure that we target those who are most at risk. That is why the Government has increased funding for supports such as the fuel allowance, has reduced VAT on gas and electric bills, has reduced excise duty and has allocated a total of €267 million, of which €202 million comes from carbon tax receipts, to Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland, SEAI, residential and community schemes, especially those targeting households at risk of energy poverty last year.

As well as the expansion of the fuel allowance scheme, the Department of Social Protection pays an electricity or gas allowance under the household benefits scheme and a further €203 million will have been spent on this scheme last year. Over 483,000 households have been expected to benefit from this.

Budget 2023 also increased the total allocation of the SEAI by 36% up to €480 million. This is the highest ever budget to support the achievement of our retrofit targets.

Last year, 4,438 free upgrades were provided to homes at risk of energy poverty through SEAI's warmer homes and warmth and well-being schemes.

This year a total of €235 million will be spent by the SEAI on dedicated energy poverty schemes and local authority retrofits. The funding will target 6,000 free upgrades in the warmer homes scheme and 2,400 B2 retrofits of local authority homes. That is effective protection for householders and reduces our dependence on fossil fuels in the long run, which ensures they can make savings for the entire time they are staying in the house.

Protecting jobs is protecting families during this energy crisis. We did that with the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS. The level of relief is set to increase to €10,000 per month. The threshold for qualification has been lowered from a 50% increase in electricity and gas costs to 30%. These changes will apply retrospectively from the start of last year.

To set the record straight, we very much supported the introduction of a windfall tax on supernormal profits of energy companies and electricity generators to help support our customers. That legislation is written and has been presented to the Oireachtas joint committee, which is doing its pre-legislative scrutiny. We will introduce it at the highest rates of any European country. It will be 75% on the profits of fossil fuel companies this year and for those-----

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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What about last year?

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Wait now, Deputy, please.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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In European legislation, those were the years set out in which we would apply it. We follow European law and we did it. In the area where we had room to manoeuvre-----

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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You had room to manoeuvre.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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------in the setting of the rate, if you check what every other European country did-----

Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein)
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You dragged your feet.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Come back and show me a country that set a higher tax rate.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Minister, please do not-----

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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That speaks volumes, compared to the words we heard earlier.

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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France. €100 per kilowatt hour.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Do not encourage the Deputies to be disorderly please, Minister. We will go to Deputy Martin Browne, who will share with Deputies Ellis, Quinlivan and Buckley.

Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein)
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The Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform is quoted this week as saying that in light of a mere 0.2% fall in food inflation, the Government will be monitoring any signs that any part of our economy may be benefiting from inflation. Is he serious in his comments? Has he failed to witness the disparity between costs and profits posted recently? I am afraid the Minister present seems to be in the same boat with the statement he has just made. Does he not, like the rest of us, know when it comes to electricity, for example, that in December of last year, consumer electricity prices were 62.7% higher year on year, while at the same time various energy suppliers recorded eye-watering after-tax profits? The Minister speaks empty words about guarding against inflation being seen as an opportunity, while resisting our calls for an energy price cap and delaying the windfall tax.

Take our farmers. Last week the agriculture committee heard how fertiliser prices started soaring due to increases in the cost of gas. When the price of gas on the markets began falling for some, this was not met with a similar fall in fertiliser prices. Some farmers were told that fertiliser had to be priced with replacing it in mind, but the same rules did not apply when gas prices started to fall. When the Minister speaks of monitoring for any concerning trends in pricing and profit-making, he is late to the table. Ireland is an outlier in Europe regarding the differences in fertiliser costs, and the same is true with electricity. Households now pay 47.9% above the EU average for electricity, yet wholesale electricity prices have dropped by over a half in the past year.

This Government consistently resisted introducing a windfall tax until the EU as a whole backed it. Instead, it prefers to string people along through the hardest times without introducing it. The people need to know that the regulation came into effect in October but the announcement was delayed until November. Now it is going through pre-legislative scrutiny and is unlikely to be introduced before June or July. It appears to me that this delay is not because of matters outside of the Government’s control but because it fundamentally resists the notion just like it has resisted our calls for price caps, opting instead to ensure big profits for big business while people in our constituencies struggle.

Energy poverty has doubled in a year. At the same time, families, elderly people and people with disabilities try to navigate the new community welfare officer system to get the additional needs payment, and it is not easy for them.

We call for the introduction of these measures as a matter of urgency. We also call on the Minister to introduce new regulatory powers for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities to address standing charges and investigate instances of price gouging, which have gone unaddressed but which have fundamentally affected people.

I commend Deputy O’Rourke on bringing the Bill to the House.

Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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There has been a huge surge in energy costs since last year. As electricity prices skyrocketed, the impact of these drastic price increases has been felt across every sector of society. Businesses have incurred devastating additional costs, which has meant that continuing in business is not sustainable for many people. Families have seen energy bills triple. Over the winter, people had to choose to either heat their homes or put food on the table. Many families and elderly people in my constituency faced a cold winter as they could not afford to heat their house. These unprecedented increases in energy prices for homes and businesses are among the highest in Europe.

Dublin North-West has a number of older housing estates that were built from the 1950s onwards. These old buildings are expensive to heat. Most of the heat escapes through the walls and roofs because they are not properly insulated. Many residents are older people and are more susceptible to hypothermia in a cold environment. Many elderly residents have come to my constituency office in despair at their latest electricity bill. People have received bills amounting to thousands of euro. These exorbitant bills have meant that many vulnerable individuals who are unwaged or on low pay have had to cut back on other spending. People are increasingly getting bills they cannot afford.

A recent report from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul showed that almost 400,000 people were unable to afford to heat their homes adequately last year, double the number from 2021. This is in the face of massive profits made by energy companies. After-tax profits at the ESB in 2022 were more than double those of 2021, amounting to almost €650 million. In view of such massive profits, there is a clear argument for the urgent need for a windfall tax on energy companies. Energy poverty, along with the cost-of-living, housing and health crises, adds to the hardship and stresses people face each day. Capping energy prices at pre-Ukraine invasion levels, reversing the increase in carbon tax and giving the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities the tools to prevent price gouging will all help struggling families with these unprecedented rises in the cost of energy.

Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein)
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The Government has done very little to alleviate the pressures being put on households due to the high cost of their energy bills. Consumers are at the end of their tether and there is little to no relief being offered to many of them. A number of elderly people I have spoken to recently have told me they have exhausted any savings they had and are extremely worried about the future.

The rate of inflation for groceries, although falling slightly, remains high at above 16%. The average cost of rents has increased year on year and the impact is being felt by those lucky enough to be able to afford or find a place to rent. Interest rates for homeowners are set to increase, and the Government made sure last week that there was no targeted relief to be offered to them. If we add to this the choice that the Government has made to increase the carbon tax, we see that many people have nothing left to give. We can also throw in the extremely high cost of energy, with this State having the highest cost consumer price for electricity and the eighth highest for gas. I wonder if the Minister has any concern for the plight of these consumers.

Households and those on middle to high earnings are struggling with these payments and those on low incomes are being impacted even more. By the end of February this year, we had 152,276 homes in arrears on their gas bills. That is a fifth of householders who use gas to heat their homes.

Despite all this, the Government does next to nothing to help consumers. There were the energy credits that took a portion off some bills, but this was not anywhere near enough and only served as a temporary cushion for some families. The option existed, as was seized on by other European nations, to introduce electricity price caps, an option the Government would not take.

Wholesale prices for gas and electricity have fallen significantly, yet consumers have not seen any benefit. A windfall tax on the huge profits of these energy providers could have been introduced, yet the Government opted not to do so. When it was compelled to do so by the European Union, it did nothing to pursue the mega profits of energy companies when the prices were at their peak in 2022.

There were choices that could have been made. The Government had options. It could have and should have protected workers and families from rising energy costs. It did not do that. It chose a piecemeal gesture to consumers that, while welcome, was not enough. The other choice was to prioritise the profits of energy companies. The superprofits of these companies and the struggle of our domestic consumers demonstrate the road the Government took.

The Minister and his Government colleagues still have the chance to change tack and this motion outlines how they can do so. They can choose to alleviate the pressure on consumers by stopping the increase in carbon tax, reducing household energy prices and offering certainty to people by capping electricity prices and granting new regulatory powers to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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I listened to the Minister's response to the first speakers. I went through his amendment to compare it to the motion, which is a simple little two-pager. When I say "simple", I mean that it calls for the introduction of a windfall tax, the provision of financial relief and certainty for householders, the reversal of the increase in carbon tax and the provision of new regulatory powers to the CRU. The amendment has 52 paragraphs. As with the Minister's speech, most of it is about the Government patting itself on the back for all of the great things it has done with all the money it has spent. Where did it get the money? It is taxpayers' money. It is our own money and the Government should not be patting itself on the back for spending it. It is supposed to be spent on our citizens to help them. Obviously the Government has not gone far enough. In paragraph 51 there is groundbreaking news and I will give the House the exclusive on it.

Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Ceann Comhairle)
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Thank you.

Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein)
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The news is that the impact of the decision to unwind the rebalancing is estimated to reduce an average domestic customer's annual bill by €40. This is what the Government's amendment calls for. The Minister has already heard speakers this evening. Everybody struggles with household debt. A recent interesting article stated that fuel poverty equals household poverty equals child poverty. I have written a note on this although I do not like doing so. It was a little article in The Irish Timesabout addressing child poverty, the serious mental health problems it causes, and evidence that poverty adds to adversity in childhood, which is linked to neuroendocrine and pro-inflammatory changes that lead to higher incidences of illnesses such as heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain cancers. It goes on and on. This is what we are building. This the legacy we will have by not doing the right thing. This was endorsed by Professor Susan Smith, Dr. Edel McGinnity, Dr. Tadg Lehane, Dr. Anna Marie Naughton, Dr. Niamh Irving, Dr. David Gibney, Dr. Catherine Mullen, Dr. Eoin Monaghan, Dr. Brid Shanahan, Dr. Patrick O'Donnell, Dr. Mary Favier, Dr. Fiona Monahan and others. It is there. It is printed in the press.

In this short space of time I ask the Minister please to do the right thing. The motion calls for four simple solutions for families and businesses who are struggling and crippled. I have raised the issue previously with the Minister of a businessman with three shops who had an annual or monthly bill of €30,000 that had increased to more than €70,000. This cannot be sustained. We cannot give people an extra few bob piecemeal. It is their own bobs because they paid the tax. I ask the Minister to do the right thing and support the motion and implement the changes.

Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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In March, the Labour Party supported a similar motion to this. In the continued absence of the long-promised windfall tax on energy companies or, indeed, any fundamental attempt by the Government to tackle escalating home energy bills in a real way, we are inclined to support the motion and the sentiments contained therein.

Wholesale prices for gas and oil are falling while energy bills at home keep rising. This is absolutely perverse. The energy companies can blame the mechanics of the market all they want but it is clear they are a hell of a lot slower to pass on cuts in their costs to Irish householders than they were to hike up the prices and rake in the record profits that have resulted. As the motion lays out, the average cost of gas and electricity bills has doubled over the past year for domestic customers and our citizens now pay the highest price for electricity anywhere in Europe according to the European household energy price index. While the bills have doubled in size the number of people in the country in fuel poverty has also doubled over the same period. The Government is simply failing to join the dots, notwithstanding the remarks made by the Minister earlier in reprising all of the various measures introduced by the Government over the past 18 months.

Older people on limited incomes and people relying on social welfare to top up their incomes stare in horror at the electricity and gas bills coming through the letterbox. They have no idea how to pay them. As it is clear the industry is incapable of regulating itself and acting fairly towards its customers, the Government must intervene. I say this because in this country there is very little confidence in the regulator. It also seems that the regulator, in this regard the CRU, acts like a nodding dog. Generally speaking, in most cases it supports the interests of the industry itself. It pains me to say this as somebody who believes in markets but I am also somebody who believes in strong State regulation of markets. All of the evidence in recent years shows the CRU is certainly not on the side of the consumer all the time and ought to be more consumer focused.

The motion calls on the Government to provide financial relief and certainty to households by reducing electricity prices to the level they were at before Putin began to wage his illegal war in Ukraine. The energy companies, as practically every speaker this evening has said, have made extraordinary profits since that time. They can easily afford this simple measure until the market returns to some kind of what I might describe as sanity. It is clear the companies will be slow to return their prices to a sensible level without clear intervention from the State. Electric Ireland, for example, seems to think that businesses are more deserving of an energy cut than struggling householders. My party has called for those same favourable business terms to be passed on to domestic customers.

A report earlier this year by the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, "Warm, Safe, Connected?", indicated that 377,000 people live in homes they were unable to adequately heat last year. This compares with 166,000 people in 2021. This is in what is observably a rich country. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul knows that domestic energy costs have been pushed to unprecedented heights over the past two years. The consumer price index for December 2022 revealed annual income increases of 86.5% for gas bills and 62.7% for electricity bills. The figures in the report of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul are truly shocking. They tally with my experience of representing my constituents in Louth and east Meath.

Rising energy bills have doubled the number of homes in energy poverty at a time when energy prices are falling. This is what is perverse. This is why this is completely intolerable. It is immoral and unethical and it simply cannot be stood over. We have a real crisis on our hands and we cannot afford to stand by and let the market sort it out, as is our tendency in this country. As my party leader, Deputy Bacik asked, is appealing to energy companies to cut their prices really the best the Government can do? In recent months I have been raising ad nauseamissues relating to price gouging at the supermarket tills and the hyperprofits being recorded by supermarkets. It is the same with electricity companies. What is it with this country that we cannot seem to fairly regulate markets and ensure that our regulators are consumer focused in the way they ought to be? What is it about the Government that Ministers feel that all they can do is commentate on a situation that is putting householders around the country to the pins of their collars?

The second demand the motion makes is for the introduction of an energy windfall tax without further delay. I have spoken in the House on many occasions about this tax and about the requirement to do this quickly. I cannot understand the delay in developing legislation, bringing it to the House and imposing the type of regime that we ought to impose on the hyperprofits of energy companies and the solidarity tax on fossil fuel companies. We know the case and the Minister has outlined it himself. He understands why this needs to happen. I simply cannot understand why we are lagging behind other European Union colleagues.

The Labour Party is also happy to support references in the motion to increasing the powers of the CRU, for example, to look at the fairness of standing charges and giving the CRU a function with regard to the standing charge regime and the hedging practices of energy companies, and a wider function in investigating the market where suspicions of price gouging are in evidence.

Our one difficulty with the motion is the call for the reversal of the latest increases in the carbon tax. We believe in the concept that the polluter pays and, therefore, we are broadly in favour of the principle and application of carbon taxes. In the extraordinary circumstances facing households watching giant energy bills dropping through the letterbox, we would prefer a slightly different approach. I accept that a reduction in carbon tax is presented by Sinn Féin as a means to assist householders who are in difficulty at present.

I accept and understand that, but I know as well that over the recent past, Sinn Féin has had an issue more generally with carbon tax. The Labour Party supports the principle of carbon tax but we have a difference of opinion on how it might be applied. We have to accept and understand that the planet is burning and we have limited time to save our planet. It is a fundamental, existential question. The fair application of carbon taxes is important because we have to have a system whereby taxes are introduced on fossil fuels, once they are applied correctly and fairly, which is the key. Carbon taxes and a fiscal regime for fossil fuels are critical in arming us with the weapons we need to address the climate crisis.

In accepting that the Sinn Féin approach is, at this point in time, fundamentally to do with assisting householders, we would say that a different and fairer approach could be taken. We said earlier this year, for example, that the State should consider temporarily nationalising the Corrib gas field and capping the price of wholesale gas instead of reversing carbon taxes. We said as well that we would introduce a €400 refundable carbon credit for households that would, by definition, be targeted at working people.

We do, however, support the broad thrust of the motion, and it is something we are happy to support. We will work with the Minister on fine-tuning the windfall tax legislation once it is produced, although I cannot for the life of me understand what the delay is. Other colleagues have listed many of the EU states that implemented the windfall tax in all its different forms and solidarity taxes on fossil fuel companies late last year, pretty much as soon as the European Council decision enabled them to do so. I cannot understand what the delay is. We will work with the Minister on that because it needs to be done urgently. In our view, the energy companies simply have had it all their own way for far too long. It should not be up to the customer to almost exclusively bear the cost of this crisis situation that we are in at the moment. This has to change and this has to change now. We are happy to support the motion.

Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats)
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I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward the motion. I do not know if it is just me, but this feels like Groundhog Day. Every few weeks, we are talking about energy prices, energy markets and energy failures in this Chamber, and it has been going on for a number of years. The reason we are still talking about it, and the reason we will still be talking about it in six months, is what we are actually facing is a market that is running wild, a market that is no longer fit for purpose. The Minister spoke earlier about how international factors are pushing up the prices, which they absolutely are, but we need an energy market that can deal with that, and we need a regulator that can regulate and deal with it as well, and ensure that customers and consumers are protected. We do not have that at the moment. There is a fundamental need for market reform. In light of the changing energy systems, we are moving into a very different energy generation make-up and there is a need for fundamental reform of our markets.

We also need to examine the role of the CRU and its place in this. The Minister said the CRU has announced consumer protection measures. When we look at what the protection measures are, they are essentially ways to help consumers pay back the bills they have racked up because the energy companies have hiked up prices. In many instances, that is what it is. They are payment plans that say, “We will not disconnect you now because it is winter time but, come summer, you will be in a position where you will be disconnected if you do not pay back the money you owe us.”

What we have is a system and a market that is not serving our people but one where people are serving it. What I have seen over the past couple of years is the Government running around trying to prop this up. When there were issues with price hikes, the Government outlined that €4 billion has been spent. That money has gone directly to energy companies because the prices were too high and people could not afford it. Therefore, the market has the Government and taxpayers’ money working for it, and that is not where we need to be.

The CRU needs more power, it needs teeth and it needs to be able to protect people. As the Sinn Féin motion outlines, it needs to be able to cover things like standing charges. We need a better understanding of the hedging that companies have used. While I understand that hedging has an 18-month timeframe, it is incredible how quickly the prices went up when they also would have hedged at that point at a particular price, yet they still managed to work those price hikes in there. However, we are not seeing them fall in an equivalent fashion so there needs to be transparency around the hedging process. I absolutely agree that this needs to be with the CRU.

From a resource perspective, I also think the CRU needs additional supports, given it has been tasked with many new roles. When we are talking about all of the wind farms, the renewable electricity support scheme, RESS, auction and oversight of the grid, there is a lot of new work that it has been tasked with, so it is important it has the resources to deal with it.

While we are talking about prices, and I have spoken many times about the impact this is having on individuals and homes and the difficulties it is causing people, I would like to focus a bit more on businesses. I understand the Government has given support to businesses but it is not helping anymore, and that is the reality. I spoke recently to a restaurant-café business in Wicklow. The owner said her average monthly bill for electricity in 2021 was €2,000, in 2022 that increased to €4,000, and in February of this year, because she is now out of contract, it increased to €8,900. Such businesses will not survive these price increases. They recognise and welcome the supports the Government gave them but they are making the point that it is no longer enough. What is going to happen is that they will go out of business.

The entire hospitality sector has had a number of years where considerable Government supports were given to them through the pandemic. They managed to keep their heads afloat during the pandemic and managed to keep going. They got out of the pandemic and got back on their feet and, now, they are being hit with energy costs. It is just too much for them to take. Unfortunately, two very popular cafés in Wicklow – MochaJoes in Rathdrum and Little Betty’s in Avoca - have closed in the past couple of weeks. They were small cafés but they were the core of the community and incredibly popular. They did not just serve coffee; they served the community, and now they are gone. We are starting to see that these small businesses can no longer take the pressure.

Interestingly, this business owner told me that, apparently, energy providers will require a security deposit of between €5,000 and €7,000 if someone wants to take a new contract in the hospitality sector. I do not know if the Minister has heard this and I will look into it further, but that is huge money for small businesses to cover.

We need to see market reforms but we also need to see resilience being built into the system. The Minister mentioned the retrofitting that has happened. I support that and think we need to see more of it. I reiterate the potential that is there for solar supports. The Government needs to make a huge intervention in providing solar panels for individual homes and businesses. Some 1 million homes in this country are eligible for solar. If they had solar panels, it would reduce their energy costs by 40% a year. Can we imagine if some of that €4 billion that was given as cash handouts had been invested in those homes?

It would mean that their energy costs would be reduced this year, next year and the year after. That is the long-term, sustainable approach that is required. Once the Government gave the cash hand-out - and I understand that people really needed that money - it was gone and that cash is now in the pockets of energy companies. We need a long-term strategy from the Government. We need to make householders resilient in the face of international or global shocks. We need them to generate their own energy and that is only possible if there is an at-scale approach and a large intervention by the Government in providing solar panels and rolling them out across each estate. The Government should do it on an estate-by-estate basis because that is the most efficient and cost-effective way to do it. The Government could go to Europe and buy solar panels in bulk and get them rolled out. It would be a lot quicker to do than relying on retrofitting and it would take a fraction of the construction staff to do it. It would yield a much quicker bang for our buck and I urge the Minister to consider doing that.

I welcome the VAT reduction, which was an important initiative. It was good to see the Government following the direction of the EU in that regard but a lot more needs to be done. We must do this now, with the six months around the summer giving us a little bit of breathing space. We must use this time wisely so that households can get through the winter without the Government having to pay their energy bills because that is not a good use of taxpayers' money. It is also not a good way to deal with our emissions. The thing about solar is that it will deal with the energy costs, with our emissions and it will also help our grid. There are three wins for the same money. That is the kind of focus on innovation that we need. We need a real rooftop revolution that actually puts power back into people's hands.

Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance)
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I just want to give the House a laugh, albeit a grim laugh, by reading from The Irish Timesfrom 2011. Mr. Conor Pope wrote an article at that time when it was announced that the Government was going to deregulate the electricity market. It is a real exercise in the ideological blindness and stupidity of people who believe in the efficiency of markets. In all seriousness, the ESB, the Consumers Association of Ireland, CAI, and others all welcomed the deregulation of the electricity market. They said it was going to be a "win-win" for consumers and for the company because with the deregulation of the market, there was going to be aggressive competition on price. Mr. Dermott Jewell of the CAI is quoted as saying, "We have waited a long time for this to happen, and for much of that time the ESB was saying that if the regulator removed its shackles it would be able to aggressively compete on price.” Mr. Jewell went on to say that the company was being given the chance to "get into the game" and that it would create a "win-win situation for the suppliers and consumers and should drive down prices".

This is textbook market dogma, which holds that when competition is introduced and markets are deregulated, prices go down. Of course, that is the rubbish they teach in economics textbooks and in many of the universities. Here, it was dictating policy on what was probably the most successful State enterprise the State had ever built. This was done at a time we had among the lowest electricity prices anywhere in Europe. What happened? Did prices go down? Was it a win-win for the consumer? No, the exact opposite happened. Prices went up immediately. In fact, they were forced to go up because low prices would be a distortion of the market. If we subsidise prices to keep them low, that is a distortion of market principles. All the other private providers that wanted to make profits and that were not operating as the ESB had been previously on a not-for-profit basis, were screaming from the rooftops that it was not fair, that they could not get their share of the market because the ESB might give lower or subsidised prices - affordable prices, in other words - for ordinary people. The ESB, therefore, had to immediately hike its prices and they have been on an upward trajectory ever since. We have gone from having some of the lowest electricity prices to having some of the highest. The biggest price hikes have been in this country and are way in excess of what is happening in most of the rest of Europe. That is the truth about what is going on. People will say that it is about Ukraine but this has been happening since the deregulation of the energy market.

People talk about the war in Ukraine and Russia's brutal invasion as having contributed to this crisis but they should step back a little and ask where Mr. Putin came from. He came from the privatisation of state enterprises. A raft of oligarchs were created by privatisation. All of the rottenness of the Putin regime is, to a very substantial degree, a result of the privatisation of their state enterprises as well and the creation of a new layer of greedy billionaire oligarchs who are also profiteering off the current crisis. Ironically, the sanctions that we have imposed on Russia have increased their profitability. The increases in energy prices means that the Russian energy oligarchs are also making a fortune. It is a win-win for the oligarchs and the privatised energy companies in this country and across Europe but it is lose-lose for ordinary people who are being crippled with unaffordable and, in some cases, unpayable bills. I have had people come into my office who have not had hot water for a year because they just cannot afford it. These are elderly people, some of whom are not well, and they have no hot water. I have had people in my office who are on district heating systems and who are being charged

multiples of the already massively-hiked kilowatt hour charges that everybody else has seen with ESB and others. The increases by Kaizen Energy and Veolia are multiples of the increases of other companies, not to mention the other charges referred to in the motion.

I forgot to thank Sinn Féin for the motion. We are absolutely happy to agree with the call for a windfall tax. We have been calling for such a tax ourselves for at least two years. We also agree that the CRU should be given teeth to look at price gouging and all the rest of it. However, we believe at this stage that we have to go further in the context of the point I am making. The current situation can be traced back to the deregulation and privatisation of these companies. That has allowed the ESB, for example, to increase its profits from €679 million in 2021 to €847 million in 2022. Centrica, the company that owns Bord Gáis, saw its profits last year almost triple from €1.2 billion to €3.3 billion.

That is a familiar picture all across Europe, including in Russia. Their energy companies are making a fortune. The fossil fuel companies and other energy companies throughout Europe are making a fortune. Ireland is absolutely no exception. In fact, it is worse than many other places. That is the truth about the cost-of-living crisis. It is not just in the energy sector. What is happening to mortgage holders at the moment is that the banks are seeing shocking increases in their profits. AIB’s profits were up massively last year. They have given out nearly €300 million in dividends to their shareholders while ordinary mortgage holders are hammered. If someone is an investor in the energy companies or the banks or the real estate investment trusts, REITs, he or she is making a fortune. However, for the tenant, the mortgage holder or the energy customer it is a very different picture. That is the truth of the cost-of-living crisis.

To our mind, it means we need to learn the lesson of where all this began with deregulation and privatisation. We need to take these companies back into public ownership and operate them on a not-for-profit basis. That needs to happen with the energy companies. The ESB is in public ownership but it needs to go back to operating on a not-for-profit basis and give subsidised prices to ordinary people in order that they are not driven into energy poverty. That will drive out the other private, profit-gouging companies that are profiteering off other people’s misery. Similarly we need to retain and re-establish full public control of the banks such as the AIB and the Permanent TSB so that we can actually control mortgage interest rates, stop ripping customers off and ensure that people are not being impoverished by massive hikes, unaffordable in many cases, in their mortgage interest repayments. In a similar way, in the housing sector, we need to re-establish public control over the housing sector and take it out of the hands of the vulture funds, wealth asset management companies and the profiteering developers and speculators.

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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This week the Government has chosen to increase the carbon tax, which has increased the cost of home heating oil, peat briquettes and natural gas for household use. At times last year, the daily price of generating electricity in Ireland was more than 12 times higher than normal. Annual household electricity bills doubled from a typical €1,000 per year in 2020 to more than €2,000 per year. While other EU countries opted for various measures such as price caps, reducing taxes and fees and giving temporary tax waivers to ease the burden on consumers, our Government shielded homes via a €600 credit. It failed to set a national cap on the unit price of electricity, which resulted in energy spending displacing food spending as the top household outgoing, forcing people to choose between heating or eating.

Although we may not see a fresh round of increases, bills are still high, despite wholesale gas and electricity prices falling, indicating that there has been no effort to pass this reduction on to consumers. Latest figures from EUROSTAT show that electricity prices in Ireland are a staggering 48% above the EU average, behind only Denmark and Belgium. This means the average household in Ireland is paying more than €550 extra a year for their electricity compared to the EU average. It is not an exaggeration to say that households are living in fear of their next energy bill. They are out the door with bills. Dozens of constituents call to my clinics weekly with utility bills that have doubled, often despite the fact that usage over the winter months this year was significantly down on 2021-22. With regard to prices, vulnerable constituents and energy poverty, my office is acutely aware that the exceptionally high wholesale gas prices have led to unprecedented increases in electricity and retail gas prices faced by consumers. This has resulted in a significant increase in the number of people at risk of fuel poverty. The number has doubled over the past year and was reported to be at a record-breaking high of 40% at its peak. Given the energy price crisis households are facing, every line of their bills must be tackled.

Reform of the energy market is needed. We need to pass on any price reduction to consumers and put limits on the profits that huge energy companies are making. Legislation addressing windfall gains was not introduced until late March, despite a European Council regulation coming into effect last October. At present it is still at pre-legislative scrutiny whereby there is no regulation addressing the periods where these companies were at their peak profit in 2022. This needs to be actioned and rectified immediately. It is wrong to receive extraordinary record profits benefiting from war and on the back of consumers but this is where we are at.

On top of this, price caps at pre-Ukraine war levels need to be implemented to provide financial relief and certainty to households. Last September, myself and my colleagues in the Regional Group called for the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to secure EU-wide agreement for the decoupling of the link between gas prices and electricity prices. Last October, I stated that without a price cap the average energy bill will continue to rise, increasing fuel poverty and causing financial hardship and stress. The CRU indicated that of the 690,000 who rely on gas to heat their homes, 139,785 were in arrears at the end of December, increasing to 152,276 by the end of February this year. That figure only tells part of the story because many more are simply going without gas, self-disconnecting, because they cannot afford it. Vulnerable households must be provided with the support they need to keep their homes warm. I reiterate the need for a price cap on energy along with the decoupling of the link between gas prices and electricity prices.

Finally, there is a strong correlation between those who live in well-insulated homes and those who do not have the same struggles with energy costs. However, families who cannot afford to pay their energy bills are not in a position to invest in expensive retrofitting measures. For example, rental properties tend to have larger numbers of older, low-energy buildings, yet the Government's plan to retrofit 500,000 homes by 2030 excludes many groups and communities who are most at risk of energy poverty. I acknowledge that €118 million of the SEAI retrofit and solar schemes has been allocated to energy poverty schemes, as well as €85 million funding for the local authority energy efficiency retrofit programme. However, there is a significant need to ramp up retrofitting supports to the relevant vulnerable people and remove the red tape to ensure retrofitting is made available and accessible to all households. Overall, we need to reform the energy market by imposing windfall tax on profiteering energy companies while looking after the most vulnerable who are susceptible to energy poverty. This can be achieved through the implementation of all-consuming legislation and price caps to regulate the market while removing any barriers to retrofitting rental apartments and homes, protecting and prioritising households that are most in need. Serious problems with retrofitting and energy-efficiency programmes, including waiting lists of up to three years for the SEAI’s free energy upgrade scheme, as well as a major labour and skills shortages, need to be considered and rectified.

Peadar Tóibín (Meath West, Aontú)
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Economically, Ireland is in reverse at the moment. We are the sixth most expensive state in Europe. According to the OECD, last year the citizens became poorer. Living standards fell last year as a result of the Government's actions. That is an incredible indictment of the Government's policies. At the same time, while citizens' incomes were falling, we saw that energy company's profits sky-rocketed in with incredible increases. After-tax profits for the ESB, a State-owned company, doubled to more than €649 million. The Minister is allowing energy companies to win the lotto everyday while condemning citizens to penury and poverty in this country. Will the Minister put those two facts side by side? Will he ask himself how he stands over it? How does he stand over the fact that he is allowing energy companies to make massive profits while at the same time families are hurting so much? It is no wonder they are making so much profit. Ireland's cost of electricity per unit is now double the European average. Ireland has the highest electricity price in Europe. Either that is an accident or it is a policy decision by the Minister; either it is incompetence or it is a desired outcome of the Government. Either way, it is an indictment of the Government’s policy in regard to people. We know that hundreds of thousands of families are living on the fumes of debt. Families are living on credit cards, overdrafts and moneylenders. We know that 20% of the population is on or below the poverty line at the moment. Families are consumed at nighttime, when they are trying to sleep, by working out which bill they will be able to pay or which bill they will have to leave until next month to pay.

7 o’clock

At the same time, we have this situation where the Government is allowing these prices to increase. There is an enormous cruelty to the Government's actions here. It is a laissez-faireattitude, because at the same time, the Government is milking it with VAT. The VAT take has never been as high in this State's history. An answer to an Aontú parliamentary question showed there was an increase of 40% in the level of VAT earned by this State on electricity. The Government is turning the screw on families with VAT in their time of need. It is an incredible situation. The Government has this €20 billion surplus coming down the tracks within the next three years, yet it made a record €381 million in VAT on electricity last year.

One of the most frustrating elements of this is every single fortnight, a member of the Government has come into the Dáil or some media studio and stated the Government is either going to deal with the high energy costs or it is going to put in place a windfall tax. Every fortnight, without fail, the Government has reneged on that commitment. Months have passed since Government made those commitments. The Government committed six, eight, ten months ago to deal with these high prices, yet it sat on its hands. This winter the only thing that has been warm are the Government's hands, from being sat on in the wintertime. It is an incredible situation. I believe this is a case of the Government strategically being incompetent. If we take the big picture with respect to the Green Party's major objectives, the party seeks to reduce energy consumption. The biggest driver of reductions in energy consumption are high prices. It is the Green Party's stated objective to have high energy prices in this State. Thus, it is not at all by accident that families are suffering so much with these energy prices. It is not at all by accident so many people are living in fuel poverty.

The solution is very simple. The Government has the levers in its hands to put these companies on notice. Other countries have done so. Italy did it, and has harvested about €4 billion in windfall taxes. Spain did it, as did Germany and Belgium. Even the British Tory party is more decent when it comes to these issues than the Green Party, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. I implore the Minister of State not to give us another promise that in a short while, there will be a windfall tax and in a short while, there will be reductions in fuel and electricity prices. The Government should do it now and put the people out of their misery.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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I am a bit bewildered because this is a good motion and I want to support it. However, on 22 October 2022, Sinn Féin refused to support our motion to cut out carbon tax and we cannot have it every way here. The people at home are bewildered, as Deputy Tóibín said, and they are blackguarded, perished, angry, demoralised and many other words I cannot use. We have the highest prices in Europe and we get promise after promise that the Government is going to introduce a windfall tax. The ESB is making record profits. There is talk of decoupling oil and gas from wind and clean energy and a lot of semantics has gone on. We were the last in Europe to allow that to happen.

It is obviously a plan by the Greens. I told Deputy Ó Cathasaigh last week that he is green on the outside and red on the inside. He said he was happy to described as that. The Greens are nothing short of communists then, out-and-out communists. They want to destroy our people and destroy our country. I think of men like Liam Lynch and Pádraig Pearse and others who fought for this country to serve our people, but the members of this Government are serving themselves. They will not even tackle the big moguls and the oil companies. They will not tackle the ESB just as they will not tackle the banks, which are causing havoc and ruin for people every day of the week. I tell the Minister of State the sooner the Government packs its bags, evacuates this building and leaves it to someone who is able to run it the better, because it is a driving a coach and four through ordinary families. They cannot heat, they cannot go to work and they cannot do anything else. They can barely eat. It is a stated policy of the Minister of State's Green Party - a communist policy again - to force out people of their vehicles by charging punitive taxes and rates. The Government came back here two weeks ago and put excise on diesel back up again by 23 cent a litre by October of this year. To hell or to Connacht with the Greens is what I say.

Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent)
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Last November, the Dáil passed a Rural Independent Group motion clearing the way for cheaper electricity prices. That motion was tabled, debated and passed on 16 November, which is almost six months ago. The motion explicitly instructed the Government to immediately change policy and implement regulations to cap the prices paid to wind farm operators and energy companies and to place a windfall or excess profit tax on all energy companies to provide for cheaper household electricity bills. It also instructed the Government to end the unconstitutional practice of protecting the superprofits of energy companies, which are driving up electricity prices for everyone. However, almost six months on the public have not seen their energy bills drop because the Government has failed to get its act together and implement the required changes. It is unforgivable for any Government policy position to continue when it allows almost all our energy companies to make staggering profits of over 600% of their predicted earnings over the past two years, while people are struggling to keep the lights on. It is totally unacceptable.

The carbon tax has been mentioned often. By next September, the Government will have put on 23 cent per litre of petrol and 18 cent for diesel, which is going to drive up the price of food. People, therefore, cannot pay their electricity bills and cannot have their lights on and a bit of heat because the Government is melting their pockets every way it can. Now there is the little nod-and-wink fund with the carbon tax, which is supported by Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Greens, the Social Democrats, Labour, all of which make up the usual cosy gang here in the Dáil. They are going to rip the money out of the ordinary people's pockets again. People cannot afford it. The Government cannot continue to add carbon tax and VAT and expect people to pay for it. The Government did not bring in any legislation to ensure people got their warmer homes in time, like they were supposed to. I support this motion, as it is trying to help people in these terribly difficult times.

Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about this serious matter. It is a fact that the exorbitant cost of electricity has driven many people demented. The Minister of State's buddy, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, is specifically responsible for not ensuring the energy regulator does its job. The regulator has not done its job and there has been no account from the regulator through all this unmitigated mess. Other countries put a cap on the electricity. We asked the Government to do the same, day after day in this Chamber. The Government totally rubbished it and would not listen to us. People have gone through hell and back trying to survive. People depend on electricity. I had one elderly woman last year who was afraid to boil the kettle because of the bills she was getting.

Then, the Government is telling people they should not cut turf. It is trying to bring in that measure by the back door now by having something in the agri-climate rural environment scheme, ACRES, saying farmers cannot cut turf and if they do, their payments will be cut. I appreciate people around the country, but especially in Kerry, who cut turf to keep themselves warm. We have done it ourselves on our farm since the 1800s. I can go back that far. We will continue to do it while we live, and my family are at it now as well. I wish the people of Kerry well and tell them all to get out now and cut turf and not have their finger inside the Government's mouth for electricity. The Government is telling people to put in heat pumps when they cannot pay the bills because of those heat pumps.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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Let me be clear: personally, the Minister of State is a very nice, affable man.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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Thank you.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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I wanted to get that out of the way, as this is nothing personal against him. However, the Green Party should be ashamed of what it has done to the people-----

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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No.

Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent)
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-----and I will tell the Minister of State why. First, look at the folly of what is going on in Foynes, where we have mulch coming in from Brazil. There are thousands of tonnes of it and it must be transported up through the country to replace the peat we were producing ourselves. The Minister of State may shake his head because he is ashamed of that fact, which has made a lot of headlines in the last couple of days. I put down parliamentary questions on it and this is not the first ship that has come in. Of course, the Government will take every way it can to try to sweep that under the carpet and deny it is happening, but it is happening.

Peat is coming from Latvia, briquettes are coming from Germany and the mulch is coming from Brazil. Brazil is cutting down the rainforests, mulching them up and transporting that mulch to Ireland for us to use, and we are losing all the related jobs. If the Green Party achieves its ultimate aim of reducing the national herd, we will also end up importing beef from Brazil. It will make farmers and ranchers in Brazil big and shut us down. That is crazy.

I do not like being critical of anybody, but I like being honest and straight in my dealings. Sinn Féin tabled this motion, but it is the same Sinn Féin that supported the Government when the latter wanted to introduce the carbon tax in the first instance. We were opposed to the tax because we knew it would affect weaker and more impoverished people. In particular, it would affect people living in rural Ireland more adversely than it would others. Sinn Féin is now realising this and trying to go back on it, claiming that the party is trying to stop that from happening, but Sinn Féin started it in the first instance along with the Green Party, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. They have made an unmitigated mess and made it expensive for people to live in Ireland.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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I thank the Minister of State for coming to the Chamber and listening to us, as every time the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, sees us coming, he is gone because he knows we are telling the truth.

Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent)
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He is gone to the bog.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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I believe he has gone from being green to being yellow. Like the coward of the county, he is out the door as fast as his legs can carry him when he sees us coming because he knows we speak the truth. We are self-employed, so we understand what the carbon tax and energy crisis can do to businesses and every person in this country. That is why he runs from us and hides when we are in the Chamber - he knows he will have to listen to the truth.

Deputy Michael Healy-Rae just spoke about trucks carrying woodchip arriving in Foynes and transporting it to keep the lights on. That is nonsensical, but the Government closed the various factories that delivered energy. Now, we are transporting woodchip around the country. The Government has no concept whatsoever of what that means. Someone can go to Spain and buy a barrel of gas for €16. It costs €45 in Ireland. Is Ireland not an EU state? Ask someone in any other European country what the price of fuel is there and people in Ireland will still pay more. A year and half ago, I brought a truck to Leinster House to highlight transport costs.

Sinn Féin voted to increase the carbon tax. Six months later, it tabled a motion but would not back our motion to get rid of carbon tax. Now, Sinn Féin has tabled this motion. It is not a bad one, but Sinn Féin is trying to have butter on both sides of its bread. None of its Members are self-employed, so they do not understand what the working person does. It is not like they have employees - people who want to feed their families and go to work in the morning. That is the difference between the Rural Independent Group and parties that claim in the Dáil they know what they are doing, even though none of them understands what it is like to be an employer.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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The Deputy is over time.

Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent)
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None of them understands what it is like to live in rural areas and support the local economy. That is what is wrong - we have too many people trying to have butter on both sides of their bread and talking out of both sides of their mouths.

Kathleen Funchion (Carlow-Kilkenny, Sinn Fein)
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Next are Deputies Connolly and Joan Collins.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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I welcome the opportunity to contribute on this motion. I thank Sinn Féin for setting out crystal clearly the unsustainability of energy bills, which continue to rise, and the Government's failure to deal adequately with the issue. I welcome that approximately €12 billion has been paid out over the past year under a number of schemes, but they were all one-off, piecemeal schemes with no overall policy setting out where we were going. We have faced crisis after crisis. We started when we declared a climate emergency and a biodiversity emergency. The housing crisis existed before I entered the Dáil and has continued unabated. There is also the crisis with the war in Ukraine. However, at no stage has the Government shown we need transformative action. I welcome the money it has provided, but that should have formed part of transformative action, and the Government has failed utterly to do that.

We will support Sinn Féin in what is once again a piecemeal approach. This is the position into which we have been forced. The EU regulation dates from almost five months ago, yet we still have not seen the promised legislation on capping and taxing windfall profits. There is no sense of urgency whatsoever. The Government cites Europe constantly in terms of supporting Europe and waiting for a policy. Regarding the war in Ukraine, for example, we do not want to use our voice for neutrality, as it is important that we stand with Europe, yet various European countries are all taking initiatives in respect of taxing windfall profits and so forth. We do not seem to have any difficulty with that. Certainly, the Government does not.

I have never supported a carbon tax. I am on record as describing the climate emergency and the biodiversity emergency as existential threats and I will do anything to make this country greener, but I do not believe carbon tax is the way to do it. It is an unjust tax. If Sinn Féin is changing its mind in that regard, I welcome that change. I also welcome that its motion calls for the increase to be reduced.

Before discussing the carbon tax, I will raise another point. We are still waiting for the report on the review of security of energy supply. It was promised in 2020 and we are now in 2023. Cambridge Economic Policy Associates, CEPA, was appointed as the technical consultant. Again, there is no sense of urgency.

We on the left have been accused of being completely out of touch because we are against a carbon tax. I come from Galway city and saw what a positive policy did there almost 23 years ago. We had three bins. We had an education liaison officer, who went out to homes to discuss recycling and reuse. A book was written on the policy, entitled The Burning Issue. Does the Minister of State know what the Government of the time did? This will be of interest to him. It took power away from local authorities to develop their own waste management plans. Does the Minister of State remember any of this? Galway City Council was showing the way forward, yet it was the second-last local authority whose services in this respect were privatised. That was an absolute disaster. I know the power of encouraging people. Indeed, it was the people that led Galway City Council.

The carbon tax was introduced in 2010. I note what Professor John Sweeney said. He is in favour of the carbon tax, but he stated that politicians felt comfortable discussing taxes rather than more fundamental social and economic changes. I would use slightly different language and say "transformative changes", where we bring energy to the new changes we have to make and they are owned by the people. Governments tell us that a carbon tax is an easy way to generate revenue. In my opinion, though, and in the opinion of those who are far more up to date on the tax, it is regressive. It is designed to change people's behaviour. According to the statistics, though, their behaviour has not changed. EUROSTAT's data from quarter 2 of 2022 show that Ireland had the highest greenhouse gas emissions, at roughly double the EU average per capita, and so on.

I will finish with what the working paper of the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, stated in 2008 before the introduction of a carbon tax. It read: "A carbon tax in Ireland will not stop climate change – indeed, it is unlikely to have a measurable direct impact on global warming." A carbon tax is simply a symbolic signalling measure that has a most unfair effect on poorer people.

Joan Collins (Dublin South Central, Independents 4 Change)
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I welcome this motion from Sinn Féin. We are debating the matter ad nauseam, but the Dáil has to keep coming back to it. I recognise that the Government has spent €1.2 billion and assisted some people with their energy bills. However, it is trying to play down the cost-of-living crisis. For example, the Taoiseach stated this afternoon that inflation was decreasing and would decrease further in the middle of the year, yet people are seeing their grocery and energy bills increasing. This is the reality. I believe the Government hopes that people will accept and forget that, under it over the past year or so, real wages have decreased, living standards have decreased, and people's ability to pay their rents, mortgages and weekly bills has decreased. People will not forget. Ordinary people cannot forget that their bills are getting bigger while their ability to pay them is shrinking. People see the Government raising carbon taxes on consumers and dragging its feet every bit of the way on levying a windfall tax on the giant corporations whose profits are causing these massive utility bills.

I too do not support carbon taxes on ordinary people. There should be a wealth tax on people who can well afford to pay carbon tax. At the moment, poorer people are paying a carbon tax to provide grants to richer people who can afford to put in the wraparounds, while those paying the carbon taxes cannot.

Wholesale energy costs are going down while the Minister responsible for energy says he is frustrated at the energy costs but will not do anything to tax or regulate them to ensure that those reduced wholesale costs get passed on to ordinary people. There is to be €65 billion in estimated budget surpluses over the coming years but the Minister for Finance is proposing to ring-fence corporation tax receipts in the midst of a severe lack of housing, a severe decline in living standards and a severe crisis in public services. Last week, the OECD released a report showing a sharp decrease in living standards due to a fall in real wages. Oxfam released a report saying the same and yet executive pay and bosses' and CEOs' compensation has gone up 27%.

Wholesale energy prices and consumer energy prices are falling across Europe but electricity prices in Ireland remain the highest in Europe. The Society of St. Vincent de Paul produced a report, Warm, Safe, Connected?, which was brought before the Joint Committee on Social Protection, Community and Rural Development and the Islands today. It showed that the national rate of households that cannot afford to keep their homes adequately warm doubled from 3.2% to 7.4% between 2021 and 2022. That is 377,000 people. The rate among rural households increased fourfold. The highest rate related to one-parent families at 21.5%. The rate among people with disabilities was 19.5% and the rate for people who are unemployed was 17.4%. The society raised the issue of the disconnection moratorium having come to an end at the end of March. It was very concerned not only for people whose bills have increased and who are carrying great debt on those bills, but for people on pre-pay tariffs, particularly gas pre-pay tariffs, because those people could not avail of the €200 energy credit and are now in severe difficulty with their pre-pay accounts. These people cannot be cut off. The Government must tell the energy companies that they cannot cut people off unless they engage with them. In particular, it should look at how people on gas pre-pay tariffs can be supported.

The average increase in household electricity prices in the EU was 62% since 2020. In Ireland, it was 112%. In February, the household cost per kilowatt hour was 22.7 cent in Poland, 24 cent in Spain, 26.7 cent in France, 31.8 cent in Sweden and 49.9 cent in Ireland. Ireland had the highest household cost per kilowatt hour but the fourth lowest government support as a percentage of GDP. Prices are going down for other European countries because their governments introduced windfall taxes and price caps and controls. Instead, we get completely unaffordable prices that will not budge and a Minister who is frustrated but who will not do anything about it. There has been no windfall tax to recoup the massive profits these companies have drained out of ordinary workers' pay, no price controls, no caps and no reduced energy costs. I support the motion. A windfall tax should be introduced and legislation should give the CRU stronger powers to investigate price gouging.

Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party)
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I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "Dáil Éireann" and substitute the following: "acknowledges the Government's response to the significant increases in energy prices for households and businesses due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine;

notes that:

— the European Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 provides for a cap on market revenues in the electricity sector and a temporary solidarity contribution based on taxable profits in the fossil fuel production and refining sectors;

— on 22nd November, 2022, the Government announced the decision to introduce measures to address windfall gains in the energy sector through the implementation of European Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 on an emergency intervention to address high energy prices;

— a general scheme of this legislation was approved by Government on 21st March, 2023, and the legislation to implement this Government decision is currently being drafted;

— the Government decided to set a cap of €120 per megawatt hour (MWh) for wind and solar, which goes further than the EU Regulation of €180 per MWh in order to fully capture windfall gains, whilst maintaining appropriate future investment signals, and the excess revenue will be collected and used to support electricity consumers;

— the cap on market revenues will operate from December 2022 to June 2023 inclusive, as set out in the Council Regulation;

— the Government has decided to implement the temporary solidarity contribution of Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 on fossil fuel production and refining companies that earn unexpected surplus profits in 2022 and 2023;

— the Government has decided to implement the temporary solidarity contribution to apply to taxable profits which are more than 20 per cent above the baseline period from 2018 to 2021, which will be subject to a rate of 75 per cent, and losses from previous years will not be considered in the calculation of the taxable profits; and

— the proceeds to be collected from the implementation of European Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854 are estimated at circa €280 million to circa €600 million, however the proceeds are highly dependent on the level of wholesale gas prices over the coming winter;

further notes that:

— the Government introduced a €2.4 billion package of supports during 2022, and an additional package of once-off measures worth €2.5 billion was included in Budget 2023;

— in February, the Government announced a €1.2 billion package to help families, businesses, pensioners, carers and people with disabilities, including:

— families with children will receive a bonus Child Benefit payment of €100 per child in June;

— a once-off €100 increase in the Back to School Clothing and Footwear Allowance in July;

— the Hot School Meals programme will be extended to all primary schools in the Delivering Equality of Opportunity in Schools programme from September, benefiting 64,500 children;

— a second lump sum of €200 will be paid in April to people on the Working Family Payment, lone parents, low-income families, carers, those on disability payments, and pensioners among others;

— lower Value Added Tax (VAT) and excise rates will continue to apply on gas, electricity, petrol, diesel and Marked Gas Oil until October;

— simplified application process for the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme (TBESS) and the level of relief has been increased to 50 per cent of the cost of eligible energy bills; and

— the 9 per cent VAT rate for hospitality is extended to August;

— in April and May 2022, 99 per cent of eligible domestic electricity accounts were credited with the first Electricity Costs Emergency Benefit Payment of €176.22 excluding VAT, with the total cost of this scheme being just under €377 million and this was of benefit to over 2.1 million households;

— under the second Electricity Costs Emergency Benefits Scheme, the first of three further €200 electricity credits was applied before Christmas, the second payment was credited to bills in the January/February billing cycle, and the final payment of support was applied during the March/April billing cycle;

— as of 6th January, 2023, the number of domestic electricity accounts in receipt of their first credit was 2.15 million meaning 99.1 per cent of all eligible customers have now had the credit applied to their account;

— combined with the first Electricity Benefit Scheme, over 2.1 million households will have automatically received €800 of income support through their electricity bill at a total cost of €1.59 billion between Q2 2022 and Q2 2023;

— this is in addition to increased funding for supports such as the Fuel Allowance, reduction of VAT on gas and electric bills, reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel and a total allocation of €267 million (of which €202 million is carbon tax receipts) to Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) residential and community schemes, including those targeting households at risk of poverty in 2022;

— in 2023, a total of €235 million will be spent on SEAI dedicated energy poverty schemes and Local Authority retrofits, and this funding will target 6,000 free upgrades under the Warmer Homes Scheme and a further 2,400 B2 retrofits of Local Authority homes next year;

— separate to the Fuel Allowance scheme, the Department of Social Protection pays an electricity or gas allowance under the household benefits scheme and a further €203 million will have been spent on the scheme in 2022, and over 483,000 households have been expected to benefit from this;

— in 2022, 4,438 free upgrades were provided to homes at risk of energy poverty through SEAI's Warmer Homes and Warmth and Wellbeing schemes;

— the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) ended its regulation of retail prices in the electricity market in 2011, and in the gas market in 2014, and given that prices are no longer regulated, they are set by suppliers as entirely commercial and operational matters by them, with each company having its own different approach to pricing decisions over time, in accordance with factors such as their overall company strategic direction and developments in their cost base;

— the CRU further extended the moratorium on disconnections for all bill-pay customers until the end of March 2023, and this is in addition to the strengthened consumer protection measures announced last September which are now all in place, and these measures include a stipulation that suppliers must offer payment plans of up to 24 months; and

— the Energy Poverty Action Plan, launched in December 2022, provides for the establishment of a €10 million fund to further support people in, or at risk of, energy poverty and provide a further safeguard to help people who may not be able to access other sources of assistance such as the supplier hardship funds, or the Additional Needs Payment scheme operated by the Department of Social Protection, while the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications are working to establish this fund in advance of winter 2023/24;

further acknowledges that:

— carbon tax will see an annual increase of €7.50 per tonne each year to 2029, then €6.50 in 2030, and this will raise an estimated €9.5 billion over that period, money to support those at risk of energy poverty, as well as retrofitting programmes, agri-environmental supports for farmers and the Just Transition Mechanism fund, and in particular, the rate of carbon tax went up from €41.00 to €48.50 per tonne on 1st May, 2023;

— analysis shows that the least well off in society would do worse if the carbon tax was cancelled or frozen, for example, the carbon tax has supported increases in and the expansion of the Fuel Allowance scheme which benefitted more than 400,000 households this winter;

— monies raised also support the National Retrofit Plan, to help families permanently reduce their heating bills, and of the €337 million allocated for retrofitting in Budget 2023, €291 million has being ring-fenced from carbon tax receipts, with over half of this being spent on free retrofits for low-income homes; and

— carbon tax receipts also provide funding to support farmers to farm in a greener and more sustainable way (under agri-environmental schemes), and it is being used to support projects under the Just Transition Mechanism fund specifically, supporting new jobs, new green energy, better public transport and community development and enterprise in the midlands;

recognises that:

— the CRU was established as an independent statutory regulator by the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 and enhanced under the Gas (Interim) (Regulation) Act 2002 and the Water Services (No.2) Act 2013, and is responsible for:

— regulation and reform of the electricity market, including the licensing of new entrant generators and suppliers;

— regulation of the natural gas market;

— security of supply, customer protection, upstream and downstream gas and electrical safety; and

— economic regulation of water services;

— the CRU is legally independent in the performance of its functions and is entirely accountable to the Oireachtas for such performance, and is funded by means of a levy on electricity and gas undertakings and income from licensing fees, and the Department of Environment, Climate and Communications will provide €689,000 in Exchequer funding in 2023 to provide for the regulation of district heating in Ireland;

— with regard to resourcing, approval has been given, in full, for the Commission's three-year workforce plan, representing 74 new whole-time equivalent positions, which include an additional director to meet its objectives under the Strategic Plan 2022-2024;

— the most significant factor affecting retail electricity and gas prices in Ireland is the wholesale price of gas, and while wholesale prices have reduced from their peak in August 2022, due to supplier hedging strategies, it may take a more sustained period of reduced wholesale prices before retail prices reduce;

— the electricity and gas retail markets in Ireland operate within a European Union (EU) regulatory regime wherein electricity and gas markets are commercial, liberalised, and competitive, with prices in the electricity and gas retail markets having been fully deregulated since 2011 and 2014;

— price setting by electricity suppliers, including standing charges is a commercial and operational matter for the companies concerned, with each such company having its own different approach to pricing decisions over time, in accordance with factors such as their overall company strategic direction and developments in their cost base;

— 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, and these include special provisions for vulnerable customers around areas such as billing and disconnections; and

— 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; and

further recognises that:

— in January the European Commission launched a public consultation on the reform of the EU electricity market design to better protect consumers from excessive price volatility, support their access to secure energy from clean sources, and make the market more resilient, and it will involve making amendments to a number of current EU legislation Regulations and Directives;

— the consultation closed in mid-February and the Commission published a suite of legislative proposals on 14th March, and Ireland is engaging with this programme of work with a view to, among other things, maintaining the integrity of the all-island Single Electricity Market;

— the new TBESS will support eligible companies, covering 40 per cent of the increase in their energy bills;

— the scheme was due to expire on 28th February, however, as the impact of higher energy costs continues to be keenly felt by businesses across the country, the scheme was extended to 30th April, 2023, and the monthly limit on aid under the scheme was increased from €10,000 to €15,000 per qualifying business in relation to a trade or profession, subject to an overall cap of €45,000 in cases where a business is carried on from more than one location, and these enhanced limits will apply for claim periods from 1st March, 2023;

— in April 2022, CRU wrote to Eirgrid and ESB Networks notifying them that it would unwind the Large Energy Users (LEU) rebalancing subvention with effect from 1st October, 2022, and the Network tariffs had been rebalanced since October 2010, in favour of LEUs, following a 2009 Government decision;

— the 2009 Government decision was made to help safeguard jobs in some of Ireland's most-critical and export-orientated industries, at a time when unemployment was rising at a fast rate;

— the impact of the decision to unwind the rebalancing is estimated to reduce an average domestic customer's annual bill by €40; and

— following the introduction of Network Tariffs for the period October 2022 to September 2023, including the unwinding of the LEU rebalancing, and the CRU decision to bring the Public Service Obligation levy to a negative value, domestic customers and small commercial customers are expected to see a small decrease in overall network costs when compared to last year."

I thank all Deputies, particularly Deputy Joan Collins. I welcome this debate on support for energy bills. One question that came up a number of times related to the timetable for introducing a windfall tax on unfair profits. The legislation is currently with the Oireachtas joint committee for pre-legislative scrutiny. It will be enacted by the summer recess. This timetable is in line with those of other EU member states.

I acknowledge the pressure that has been put on people and businesses by unprecedented high energy prices. The most significant factor affecting retail energy and gas prices is, of course, the wholesale price of gas. The Commission for the Regulation of Utilities was established as an independent statutory regulator by the Electricity Regulation Act 1999. It ended its regulation of retail prices in the electricity market in 2011 and in the gas market in 2014. Consistent with the European energy regulation process, the electricity and gas markets in Ireland are commercial and price setting by electricity suppliers is a commercial and operational matter for the companies concerned.

Providing supports to alleviate high prices is a priority for this Government and intensive work has been undertaken, and will continue to be undertaken, to address the challenges faced by consumers. Energy prices are being monitored and Departments are working to support households and businesses to meet their energy costs. As my colleague, the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, outlined, the Government introduced a suite of measures worth €2.4 billion in 2022. These were to assist households with their energy costs. Budget 2023 provided a further €2.5 billion in once-off measures to support households with the rising cost of living. The measures in budget 2023 included a €400 lump sum for fuel allowance recipients and a €200 lump sum for pensioners and people with a disability who were getting the living alone allowance. A €500 cost-of-living lump sum payment was made to all families getting the working family payment and a double payment of child benefit was made to support all families with children. A €500 cost-of-living payment for people receiving a carer's support grant was paid in November and a €500 lump sum cost-of-living disability support grant was paid to all people receiving a long-term disability payment. In February, the Government announced a further €1.2 billion package to help families, businesses, pensioners, carers and people with disabilities to cope with the cost-of-living pressures.

In April and May of last year, 99% of eligible domestic electricity accounts were credited with the electricity costs emergency benefit payment of €200. The total cost of this scheme was just under €377 million. This was of benefit to an extraordinary number of households. Under the second electricity costs emergency benefit scheme, the first of three further €200 electricity credits was applied before Christmas. The second payment was credited to bills in January and February and the last payment in the March-April billing cycle. In January, the number of domestic electricity accounts in receipt of their first credit was 2.15 million, meaning that 99.1% of all eligible customers had the credit applied to their account. Combined with the first electricity benefit scheme, more than 2.1 million households will have automatically received €800 of income support through their electricity bill at a total cost of €1.59 billion between the second quarter of 2022 and the second quarter of this year. The Government has also reduced VAT on gas and electricity bills and increased funding for supports such as the fuel allowance. It has reduced excise duty on petrol and diesel and allocated a total of €267 million, of which €202 million comprises carbon tax receipts, to the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland residential and community retrofit schemes. These measures targeted households at risk of energy poverty in 2022.

The energy poverty action plan was published in December 2022 in response to rising energy prices and sets out a range of near- and medium-term income, social protection and consumer protection support measures. This plan provides for the establishment of a €10 million fund to further support people in or at risk of energy poverty into 2023. Officials are working to ensure this fund is operational in advance of the winter of 2023-24.

The temporary business energy support scheme was due to expire on 30 April. However, as the impact of higher energy costs continued to be felt by businesses across the country, the scheme was extended until the end of May 2023. The monthly limit on aid under the scheme was increased. It was €10,000 but went up to €15,000 per business in relation to a trade or profession, subject to an overall cap of €45,000 in cases where a business is carried on from more than one location.

The Government will implement Council Regulation (EU) 2022/1854. This seeks to address windfall gains in the energy sector by collecting excess revenues from those companies that have unexpectedly benefited from high energy prices and redistributing those revenues to alleviate pressure on affected energy consumers. I confirm that any money raised out of windfall taxes will be ring-fenced for energy customers. The proceeds from the implementation of this Council regulation, including the temporary solidarity contribution from fossil fuel companies and the cap on market revenues in the electricity sector, can be used to provide financial supports to households and companies heavily affected by soaring energy prices.

I will now move on to carbon tax. Where do the revenues from carbon taxes go? Half of the money raised from carbon taxes goes to targeted retrofitting programmes aimed towards those in energy poverty. One third of the money that comes from carbon taxes goes towards increasing welfare payments. Those welfare payments have been selected to target people living in energy poverty. The remainder of the money is used to support agricultural schemes for farmers and the just transition.

Every penny raised from the carbon tax is then redistributed according to those ratios.

In summary, providing support to people and businesses affected by the unprecedented high energy costs remains a key priority for Government. I welcome this debate and I thank Deputies from all sides for their contributions.

Paul Donnelly (Dublin West, Sinn Fein)
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I was canvassing last week in the Navan Road area, which is in my constituency, and I met Mary who is a pensioner. She and her husband have a very modest income after a lifetime of work. She said that she keeps the heating off and uses a blanket to keep warm when watching television. Mary showed me a bill of €800 for gas and one of €500 for the ESB. She said she managed to pay one off just as the other dropped in the letterbox. She is desperately worried about paying the ESB and the cycle will start all over again in the next couple of months. What is she to do? Mary, not just Sinn Féin, believes that the Government is not doing enough to help struggling families and workers. New figures released show that Ireland has the highest electricity prices in Europe. Wholesale gas prices have fallen. Why is this not being passed on to people? Electricity prices for households gradually went from being one of the lowest in Europe, before the energy market was privatised in 1996, to the highest in recent years. Energy poverty has doubled in the last year. What does the Government do? It increases the carbon tax by €7.50 per tonne. This hits home heating bills this month. People are literally praying for a hot summer, autumn, and winter this year. The Government has resisted energy market reforms at every turn. It is clearly not on the side of families and workers. What did I tell Mary that a Sinn Féin Government would do? We would introduce the windfall tax on the obscene super profits of the energy companies; provide real financial relief and certainty to households by reducing electricity prices and capping them, as has been done in Germany, Australia, and the Netherlands; reverse the increase in the carbon tax; and introduce regulatory powers for the Commission for Regulation of Utilities to address issues affecting the price that families pay for energy. I ask every Deputy to support this motion.

Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein)
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I commend my colleague, Deputy O'Rourke, not only on all the work he has put into this Private Members' motion, but on trying to combat energy poverty and deprivation over the past months. For more than five months now I have been highlighting the need to tax electricity companies for the obscene profits and to put that money towards reducing people's bills. Sinn Féin has been warning that since the electricity price system is broken, and it has been broken since November 2021 or even before that, households have seen record profits being made by energy companies while individuals struggle to pay enormous bills. Government failed to act and even opposed reform at EU level. Instead, artificially high prices were left unchecked, allowing electricity companies to rake in profits. The EU eventually forced the Government into just tweaking the system but that did not even kick in until December 2022, while electricity companies lined their pockets for more than a year between the time when I called on the Government to act and when limited reforms were made.

The transfer of wealth from household to corporate profit hurts the elderly, workers and families and it has huge implications on people's lives. It also destroys local economies and negatively impacts on the domestic economy. I questioned the Minister, Deputy Ryan, for months on this issue. Every time, he assured me that electricity profits would be taxed for 2022, and it is all on the record. On 28 February this year, the Taoiseach stated that there would a tax specifically on electricity generators. He said the tax raised on generators would be used to bring down prices for businesses and for households and that it would apply to profits made in 2022. If the Minister and the Taoiseach thought they could make false promises and wait for this problem to go away, then that really is politics at its most cynical.

People are really desperate. We have to separate the issue of fuel poverty and the impact it has from fuel deprivation which is not counted at all. I refer to the number of people who are just going without because they are frightened to heat their homes and of the bills.

I refer to the amount of money held by these companies. I was overcharged €800. It was just taken out of my bank account. People are left without any money at the end of the month because the companies just come along and take what they deem is fit. Let me say that trying to get that money back is an onerous task, and I have personal experience of it. How much of the money held by these energy companies belongs to people who are really hard pressed and in really difficult situations?

Darren O'Rourke (Meath East, Sinn Fein)
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I thank everyone who contributed to the debate. I will come back on a number of points but it is clear from the debate and listening to the Government's response and reading its extensive and long countermotion, that it has not done enough to protect consumers, to rein in energy companies, and to ensure fair practice within the energy sector here. That failure is not measured in statistics but in the human and social cost. We have it in terms of statistics, in that 377,000 people are living in energy poverty, according to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, and there is a significant increase in arrears, particularly on the domestic gas side, with one in five domestic accounts now in arrears. Government points towards retrofitting and the measures it has taken. We know there are huge delays in people accessing retrofits, which is based on means in the first instance, and for those who do not have the means, the wait is incredibly long.

I challenge the Minister, Deputy Ryan, in his assertion that the windfall tax here will be the most aggressive in the European Union. It will not be. He asked us to point to other countries that are being more aggressive in terms of the individual thresholds within the measures. I can point to France, which is introducing a threshold of €100 per kilowatt hour for wind, solar, and nuclear. Ireland will introduce a threshold of €120. More importantly, we can point to other European countries which tackle the super excess profits that were made in the summer to autumn period of 2022. These profits are not being captured by this windfall tax. It is fair enough that the European regulation prescribes a certain formula but other countries have recognised the offensiveness of the profits made in that period. I refer to renewables companies in Ireland and the Government's own measure. Some €92 is a reasonable measure and additional profits are allowed on that but in truth, last autumn, renewables companies here were getting multiples of €92. They were never expecting that. Profits were up to five times that. These were obscene profits which were never expected and were unfair.

The Minister of State used the word "unfair". The Government does not have a plan to tackle those profits and to reinvest them to protect vulnerable customers and people who are exposed. The Minister of State said the windfall tax would be ring-fenced to protect energy customers. In my understanding, that is not clear in relation to the temporary solidarity contribution. I think we will hear more on that. There has been a very significant reduction in the projected intake from the cap on market revenues. Due to delays by Government, we failed to capture that period when wholesale gas prices were at their highest. There is an acknowledgement in the Government's response and in its countermotion of the need for additional resources for the CRU, which is welcome. It is also welcome that there is a plan in place.

It is also very clear to anyone who reads the Government's proposed amendment that the CRU does not have the requisite powers to hold energy companies to account. The deregulation of the market has been a resounding failure for energy customers here. We have seen a 150% increase in the cost of electricity to consumers in Ireland since 1999 compared to a fraction of that increase in other European countries, and this is because of the failed deregulation policy of this Government. We must strengthen the power of the regulator and hold energy companies to account.

Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent)
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In accordance with Standing Order 80(2), the division is postponed until the next weekly division time.