Ar an gcéad dul síos, gabhaim buíochas leis na Daonlathaithe Sóisialta as an rún a thabhairt os comhair na Dála. Gan dabht, is iad costais fuinnimh an brú is mó atá ar theaghlaigh sa lá atá inniu ann. An choicís seo amháin, ag tosú Dé Luain, beidh breis agus milliún teaghlach i ndiaidh a gcuid billí fuinnimh a fheiceáil ag dul in airde. Seachtain i ndiaidh na cáinaisnéise, beidh an faoiseamh beag a gheobhaidh siad slogtha ag costais fuinnimh atá ag dul i méid. Anois, agus muid ag díriú isteach ar an gheimhreadh, ch…

From next Monday, over 1 million households will see gas and electricity prices begin to increase. Households lose out but big energy companies will be the big winners. Energy companies will rake in even greater profits while ordinary people are left to carry the burden. Will the Minister bring forward a windfall tax on these excess profits and use the money to help households struggling to keep the lights on and heat their homes this winter?

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Aire. The Minister knows the European Commissioner has ruled out a Europe-wide energy windfall tax. He said it was better done domestically. There is no point in the Minister for Finance hiding behind the skirts of the European Union. It said, as of Tuesday, that it is not planning to do this and that it is best done at domestic level. These companies are raking it in. Households will be fleeced by nearly double-digit increases in gas and electricity from Monday, the day before the budget. …

It is the energy Commissioner who made the point that there will be no windfall tax at a European level. That is the wrong position - I absolutely agree on that - but in this Parliament, the Minister, as the Minister for Finance, can bring one in if he wants. He can tax the excess profits. We are talking not about the profits but about the supernormal profits that energy companies are making. He should tax them at a rate of 75%. Why? It is because they should not be making these types of profits while people are be…

Within a stone's throw of this Dáil, there are apartments owned by vulture funds. They charge over €3,000 for a two-bedroom apartment and the Government lets them off without paying a penny in tax on their rental income. Hundreds of thousands of euro are being fleeced from renters right across this city and elsewhere and the Minister of Finance does not ask these funds to pay a penny of corporation tax on their rental income. Is the Minister going to continue to adopt that position, which is against his officials' …

I am well aware of the IREF regime. The record will show it was me who campaigned to bring it in in 2016, just as it was me who had to force the Government to bring in the renters' tax credit and the mortgage interest relief that it continued to argue against but finally started to see sense on. This is the issue here. I have continued to campaign on this point. Just think about this: there are two-bedroom apartments a stone's throw from this building, from our national Parliament, and their owners are charging €3,…

-----that the Government's officials have called for a tax to be introduced. It is there in black and white.

There is no point in the Minister shaking his head. It is there in black and white. The officials have called for a tax to be introduced.

Will the Minister finally do the right thing?

Will he tax the vulture funds on the rent they are collecting?

I have the documentation. The Minister's officials have recommended a tax at the level of the fund. They have recommended a rate of that tax. A tax of that nature could bring in a quarter of a billion euro. Does the Minister know what he could do with a quarter of a billion euro? He could do what Sinn Féin is proposing, that is, to double the renters' tax credit and put €2,000 into every renter's pocket across the State to help them as they are being fleeced by the landlords the Government protected over many years…

The Department officials have recommended that the Minister bring in a tax.

Will he actually-----

-----take a side that is not the side of the vulture fund in this case?

Oh my God.

Who pushed you into it?

Who forced you into it?

I am-----

Still larger than Fine Gael for the past two elections.

Still. Good luck to you.