Energy and Fuel Costs: Motion Seanad Éireann — 2026-09-29 ============================================================ Nessa Cosgrove (LAB), Labour Panel Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire Stáit. I thank the Fine Gael Senators for giving us the opportunity to speak about this today. We all know that energy and fuel costs are increasing rapidly as a consequence of war and conflict. An unnecessary war of choice has to be named as the number one cause of current fuel inflation around the world. There is a normalisation of war, which our President has spoken about so much, and we are accepting the normalisation of war. As a result of that, we can see the direct impact on prices of fuel and energy. We see an increase in the price of food and other day-to-day essentials. It has to be called out that while 700,000 people are struggling with fuel poverty, others are profiting. This needs to be called out. It was welcome to see the call for a windfall tax on energy suppliers. Six European countries - Germany, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Poland and Austria - have introduced a windfall tax. We did it in the recent past, during the energy spike caused by the invasion of Ukraine. A tax was placed upon excess profits by energy companies too. We cannot understand why we cannot do it again. These companies are still making vast profits. This includes private companies, like Bord Gáis Energy, which made €72.5 million. Among the semi-States, ESB made €640 million in 2025, EirGrid made €429 million and Bord na Móna made nearly €32 million. Private companies need to make a profit but they do not need to make such an extraordinary profit. This is even more the case for semi-State companies. How can such profit levels be justified at a time when so many people are facing a genuine crisis and a winter choice between heating and eating? It is time to introduce this windfall tax - it is good to see it in the motion - to redistribute the income to those who need it the most. Perhaps we should name this an energy solidarity tax, which could end up funding this. As a party, we are calling for targeted energy payments of €400 per household for people earning under €80,000 so that those who need it most are getting it, along with an increase in the fuel allowance. I rise today to speak about public transport too. As a representative of rural Ireland, it baffles me that the charges for public transport have gone up. Now is not the time to increase public transport fees. It does not make sense. We can see that an increase in public transport fares hits the people on the lowest incomes the most; students, elderly people and commuters. I cannot understand how this is justified. The Just Transition Commission has urged the Government to halt plans to increase fares by an average of 15%, bringing in an estimated €70 million to the Exchequer. However, there was underspend of €65 million of carbon tax in 2025. Why should that not have been pushed over towards public transport? We must welcome the increase in production of renewable energy in recent years. That has to be said. At a time when we are generating new levels of renewable energy, these potential benefits are being absorbed by energy-hungry data centres. Energy should be getting cheaper as new renewables enter the market but it is not - it is getting more expensive. My colleague, Deputy Ciarán Ahern, introduced a Bill last week which would compel data centres to produce 100% of their own energy from renewables, which is very reasonable. I have asked many times in here why we are throwing money at building new fossil fuel infrastructure, such as LNG storage. Now is the time when we should be investing in and rolling out renewable technologies. We always hear this argument that carbon tax is used for SEAI grants but we know that SEAI grants are for people who need to have the money upfront. I know there have been changes to it. There absolutely have been changes, which is welcome because we know renters are particularly affected by this. They are living in freezing homes and the landlords are not willing to put the money into it. Let us see how this works out. It is good to see that. The ESRI report has said that the carbon tax hits the poorer homes the most, which I have known for a long time. We cannot tax our way out of it so there is absolutely no justification for an increase in carbon tax. The Government has responded to this crisis in a reactionary way. You cannot just keep throwing money at something. If we really want to reduce energy prices, we have to invest in renewable energy and not be throwing money at LNG infrastructure. We need to look at people and make sure they are able to use public transport, particularly people in rural Ireland who want to use it. Putting up this price at this time makes absolutely no sense. I hope the suggestions the Opposition have made will be listened to and taken on board, given our opportunity to speak here. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-09-29/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-09-29