Windfall Tax on the Excess Profits of Energy Companies: Motion [Private Members]
Dail Éireann — 2026-09-30
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Jennifer Whitmore (SD), Wicklow

We are entering into a winter of discontent. Life has never been so expensive, whether it is electricity, gas, home heating oil, fuel or groceries. People are struggling to keep their heads above water.
I am particularly supportive of the solar measures that are being brought in but they are clearly not enough. More has to be done.
This is not just about energy. I think this is what the Minister of State is missing. It is not just about costs. This is about fairness. The Irish people have an innate appreciation of fairness. If they believe something is not fair, it really goes against the grain. What we are seeing here is that the Government's approach is not fair. People are struggling. An elderly man in my constituency has been threatened with disconnection. I raised his issue in the Dáil yesterday. It is not fair that he is going through that and at the same time we have large energy corporations the Government is refusing to tax properly. It is not just the normal taxation, they are making super profits, extraordinary profits that they could never have envisaged, and the Government is refusing to ask them to play their part, to do their bit, yet it expects individuals to do it.
When we have fuel protests and people are lined up on the roads again, the Minister of State must understand that is actually at the core of what is happening. People know that this Government is prioritising large corporates - large energy companies and data centres - and that they are the ones who are making money and the people who are suffering, who are being disadvantaged, and who are bearing the brunt of the energy crises that they have no part in are individuals, lone parents, retirees and pensioners. They are people who are really struggling and they need to know that this Government has their back; that it will support them and it will bring a level of fairness into this debate.
Instead of saying the EU has ruled out an EU-wide energy windfall tax, which is what has happened, or saying the Government agrees with this motion, it will support it and it will bring in a national windfall tax so that no one - no corporation, no large entity, no large business - is essentially making money off the backs of people who cannot afford it, it is closing its eyes to it. From a social solidarity and cohesiveness perspective, it is making a huge mistake. People need support. They need the Government to have their back and it does not have it.

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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