Windfall Tax on the Excess Profits of Energy Companies: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30
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Danny Healy-Rae (IND), Kerry

I thank the Social Democrats for giving us the time to discuss this very important matter here this morning. The cost of electricity and fuel continues to increase and families are struggling to manage. Indeed, one in seven households is in arrears. Every day people are being encouraged by this Government, and indeed the previous one, to go electric but there is no regulation and no sign of the regulator at all and it has been mentioned here several times. Where has the regulator gone? Is it hiding? What is the matter?
These electricity companies are making massive profits on the backs of customers and the Government is directly responsible for ensuring that does not happen. Yes, the idea or notion of a windfall tax is grand and is going in the right way but companies should not be making this windfall because it is hurting many people. Government is advising people to go electric and is tempting them now to get rid of their boiler with a €2,000 grant but it is not telling them how much it will cost to put in the heat pump. How much will they get towards that?
Every day since Bord na Móna closed down, the cost of electricity has gone up, and the Government must recognise that. These so-called energy grants from the SEAI, such as the warmer homes scheme and the grant for those on fuel allowance, are taking a year and half to materialise. Then, the SEAI invariably comes back to tell people they will not qualify. That is very wrong, and the Minister of State is not addressing that, even though it has been raised here before.
The cost of electricity is exorbitant and the Government is letting the electricity companies get away with it. Where is the regulator? I am asking the Minister of State to find it and get it to do its job because people are being paralysed by the cost of electricity.

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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