Windfall Tax on the Excess Profits of Energy Companies: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30
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Albert Dolan (FF), Galway East

I read in the Business Post that Europe has spent over €100 billion extra on energy this year since the start of the Iran War, and that is just in a European context. That is the amount of money that has been spent on energy, with no extra energy really delivered. That figure is just the increase in what Europeans have had to pay across the board. Somebody is definitely profiting, so there has to be consideration given to windfall taxes. Maybe that consideration has to be given at a European level, although I am not sure if that is the best way to implement it.
I want to briefly have a conversation this morning about what I am seeing on the ground in east Galway with solar developments. Solar has huge potential, and we have massive amounts of marginal land in the west of Ireland that could be used for solar. However, the problem is that the way in which these developers are engaging with communities is absolutely shocking. They are disrupting rural communities and are not having a fair engagement process.
I will give one example. In Lackagh, County Galway, a leaflet was recently dropped which proposed a 240-acre solar farm. There was subsequently a community engagement evening on the Wednesday night, where everyone met with the company and were told it would be going for planning in November and December but on the Friday, the company put up the planning notices, submitted the application and now that community has no idea what is going on. It had no consultation and no engagement. We need clear, solar planning guidelines for rural communities so that people know what it means, what is happening and that there is no unfair planning process imposed upon them.

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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