Windfall Tax on the Excess Profits of Energy Companies: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30
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Sinéad Gibney (SD), Dublin Rathdown

It is disappointing to see again how little the Government has engaged with our reasoned, evidence-based and solidly worked motion, which Deputy Whitmore and the Social Democrats have put a lot of work into. Once again, it proposes to "delete all words after Dáil Éireann". It is important that people at home know that this is how the Government approaches most Private Members' motions tabled by the Opposition. It proposes to delete all words after "Dáil Éireann", completely ignore the reasoned and evidence-based solutions we have put forward and reiterate how great the Government is in what it is doing.
I will speak to three issues, namely, the urgency of this issue, the fact that the electricity companies can afford this, and the fact that ordinary people are now choosing between heating and eating. People do not have a choice on how to fix this, but the Government does. On the first issue, urgency, winter is closing in and there is a complete lack of Government action on how to properly address this, both immediately and in the medium and long term. The figure indicating that 323,559 households are now in arrears should be haunting all the dreams of the Government. It is clocking up further day by day, just as the electricity meters are, as people who are under pressure from the cost-of-living crisis watch them at home.
The Minister of State spoke immediately about this being affected by external markets and geopolitical forces. We are all aware of that but it is up to the Government to use the tools available to it to fix this. My party is coming forward with solutions that the Government is choosing to completely reject. The Minister of State referred to the ECOFIN meeting of last week. My colleague, Deputy Cian O'Callaghan, spoke about a windfall tax and the Department of Finance was quick to come in and say the issue was on the agenda. It was on the lunchtime agenda of the ECOFIN meeting following pressure from other Ministers. I am sorry, but the Government was dragged kicking and screaming to even discuss a windfall tax at that appropriate forum.
One of the other things I picked up from the language in the Minister of State's statement was the term "energy affordability". Energy affordability is crucial, but what seems to have completely evaporated from the lexicon of Government Ministers is energy poverty. That is what people are experiencing, and that is the urgency the Government is failing to deal with. Electricity companies can take the hit. We are seeing record profits. ESB pre-tax profits were €445.6 million for the first half of 2026. There are huge price rises, with energy costs per household up 70% in the past five years and the price of home heating oil up 60% since last year. We are not saying that this motion would fix everything. We are not arrogant enough to suggest that, but the urgency is due to Government inaction on energy costs and its supports for people.
The Government has the tools at its disposal to do this. Ordinary people do not. They need to meet their basic needs for survival through the winter. We have the option, as a Parliament, to help them. The Government has an option to help them. For the older people worried about turning on their heat, the young families who do not know how they are going to pay their bills and everyone who is suffering from the soaring cost-of-living crisis, the Government is not offering any decent solutions. We have put forward an actual solution here but the Government in its countermotion and the Minister of State in her speech have chosen to completely ignore the substance of our motion. Does the Minister of State know how insulting it is for us, as a party and as parliamentarians, and for our supporters, voters and members, that the Government does not even bother to countenance it? I understand there is a meeting of energy Ministers but not even the junior Ministers in the Department bothered to turn up today. I urge the Minister of State to withdraw the countermotion and support the introduction of windfall taxes.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-09-30/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-10-05T01:00:59+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-09-30