Windfall Tax on the Excess Profits of Energy Companies: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30
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Aidan Farrelly (SD), Kildare North

I thank my colleague Deputy Whitmore for her excellent work on this. As an overall summary, having sat here for the entire debate, the contempt and disrespect shown by the Government benches with regard to a fully costed and evidenced proposal is quite baffling. The Minister of State just said he encourages people to talk to their suppliers as if that will achieve something, while the CEOs are sitting there laughing at us with the profits they are making. It is just baffling.
There is a perception that this Government continues to pick the wrong side, namely, the side of big business, profits and greed, all at the expense of the taxpayer. The merits of the motion are clear and simple and would do untold good for the hundreds of thousands of people in energy arrears and the people now facing into another winter of choosing whether to eat or heat while providers sit back and laugh at us. The Government has to pick a different side now. The Minister of State can list off the record levels of investment in social protection, the fivers here and tenners there that leave no legacy or the free school this and free school that. That is simply giving people back their money while, simultaneously, the Government chooses to muddy the waters with referrals to the EU just to keep telling itself it is on the side of people. In parallel, the Government gives the sly nod to CEOs of energy and grocery companies, pension funds, data centres and developers. It is a case of "Do not worry lads; we will sort you out". The social contract I was raised with promised me that if I worked hard, put my head down and contributed positively to my community, I would be able to provide the basics for me and my family - to heat and eat. The Government has rewritten that social contract without telling anybody because all of that does not matter any more.
I have visions of the Government telling itself in Cabinet that it should put the squeeze on now so it can give it back ahead of the next election, that is should pull the plaster now and ignore the reality at a time of record budgetary surplus because it thinks it will pay off in the long run as it drip-feeds announcements of minimal increases in years four and five of this cycle. This will then appear to show the people that the Government is listening to them on the problems it itself has created. It is clear the Government has already picked its side. It will knock on the doors, go on the radio and television and say all the rights things, only to do the opposite the minute it has a portfolio to protect or a CEO to impress. "We cannot do it all in one budget", it will say. If it picked the side of the people who are scared to turn on the heating, plug in the heater, light a fire or get a fill of oil, who cannot afford to install solar and who go around the shop with a calculator in their hands, desperately concerned about going over budget while international supermarket chains lap up windfall profits. If the Government picked the side of those people and chose to do good instead of waiting, this proposal would be considered.

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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