Energy Prices
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-29
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Simon Harris (FG), Wicklow

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta. More broadly regarding energy prices and the like, I am conscious of the pressures people are feeling in relation to energy bills. They are real, not just in Ireland but across the European Union and large parts of the world. In an Irish context, we will have our budget next Tuesday, when we will endeavour to assist people with those bills, particularly through the winter period. The Government is conscious of the increased financial pressures on households and businesses in recent months. In response, it has introduced a number of measures to help reduce - or at least suppress the growth of - fuel prices for households and businesses, with additional supports for key sectors of the Irish economy and supports more widely in relation to excise reductions.
The European Commission's AccelerateEU communication addresses the EU's rising energy costs and volatile fossil fuel markets and aims to accelerate the clean energy transition and strengthen EU energy resilience. While the communication notes member states may take domestic measures, no EU-wide approach has yet been agreed. The temporary solidarity contribution, TSC, was introduced in line with the Council regulation of 6 October 2022 to tackle windfall gains being made in the energy sector following the commencement of the war in Ukraine. The TSC formed part of a co-ordinated European response, reflecting the highly interconnected nature of EU energy markets - when we acted, we did so at an EU level - and a view that an emergency intervention to mitigate the effects of high energy prices at the time could not be sufficiently achieved by member states individually. It continues to be our view that tackling the energy crisis in a co-ordinated way between EU member states is preferable, given the interconnectedness of EU energy markets.
Governments across Europe are rightly attentive to developments in energy markets and their impact on households, businesses and the wider economy. As Minister of Finance, and in the context of our Presidency of the Council of the EU, as I think we discussed before, we put the topic of a windfall tax on the agenda of the ECOFIN meeting in Dublin and I have requested the European Commission to reflect on those discussions and report back at a meeting of ECOFIN next Thursday and Friday in Luxembourg. I will update the House after that.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-29/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-29