The energy crisis has plunged households into real hardship and uncertainty. Many people are worried about how they will make ends meet this winter. The energy crisis has been with us for some time now, with spikes in prices in bills last year. What is the Minister's current position on the levying of windfall taxes on energy companies on the back of this crisis? What position has he adopted within the Government as well as in the Eurogroup and ECOFIN since October 2021? Has that position changed during that time?

Energy companies and generators have been enjoying massive and unjustifiable profits as a result of the spike in gas prices, which has been brought on by the illegal invasion of Ukraine, or at least has contributed significantly towards it. This is also the result of a broken wholesale energy market that is inflating electricity prices and household bills. By paying electricity generators the cost of the final generator needed to balance demand, typically gas in this instance, lower cost electricity generators are …

To clarify, does the Minister now believe in the idea of windfall taxes on electricity generators, particularly those in the renewable sectors? On 4 May last, he told the Committee on Budgetary Oversight that "another option is higher taxes on the suppliers of renewable energy", stating also that "Renewable energy is the way out of this, over time, and I would argue that taxing those who are at the heart of trying to provide new sources of energy supply is the wrong direction to go." Is the Minister now saying that…

For some time, we in Sinn Féin have been calling on the Minister to bring forward a comprehensive plan that would assist families, workers and households that are struggling at this time, particularly with the rising cost of energy but also with the cost of living in its totality. Research by the Financial Times and by Bruegel, which was updated yesterday, shows Ireland is the worst in Europe in terms of supports being brought forward for households and business to deal with rising energy costs since September last…

Even if GNI* were used, we would still be below Slovakia. The Government would still be one of the worst in Europe. The Minister can dice and slice the statistics all he wants but there has been independent research done and whatever metric is used, we are still way behind what other countries have done. Many of those countries are borrowing to support families and businesses at this time. We have put it to the Minister time and again that there are measures he could introduce. For years, we have been putting forwa…

The Minister can dress this up all he wants. We have been at him for months now about the cost-of-living crisis. We have put forward proposal after proposal but he has ignored them all. He will ignore them all until he is forced into a U-turn, just as he has been with regard to the windfall tax and decoupling, when he sees the light that the measures that we on our benches have put forward make sense. The Minister cannot escape the reality that he is the finance minister who has the worst record in Europe according…

The Financial Times did that, not me.

Tá teaghlaigh i lár ghéarchéim costas maireachtála agus feictear seo go soiléir i gcuid mhór earnálacha. Feictear go hiontach soiléir é san earnáil chíosa. Chuir géarchéim tithíochta an Rialtais seo glúin amach as úinéireacht tithe. Tá an gnáthchíos anois ag €1,500 sa mhí. Tá daoine ag díol níos mó cíosa i mbliana ná mar a bhídís ag díol anuraidh agus tá tacaíocht de dhíth orthu. Tá Sinn Féin ag moladh chreidmheas cánach dóibh siúd atá ag díol cíosa a gcuirfeadh cíos míosa ar ais ina gcuid pócaí agus coisc ar ardui…

We have been having this conversation now for years and I feel that at some stage the penny might drop because every year we see all the statistics go in the wrong direction. When new rents are going up by 9.2% a year and house prices are going up by 14%, how far does rent have to go before the Tánaiste starts to realise the Government’s policies are actually contributing to this problem in the first instance? He talks about social housing, on which the Government will not meet its own targets. He talks about cost-…

-----which would put that money back into renters’ pockets, and a ban on rent increases for the next three years. Is that something the Government will entertain because the Tánaiste has been stating publicly that he wants cuts for landlords?

With the budget only days away, tens of thousands of homeowners and tenants living in defective buildings are nervously waiting to hear what the Government's plan is. Families living with defective blocks in the county in which I live, Donegal, and in Mayo, Clare and other counties, want to know whether the new scheme will be open in January and will have sufficient funding to provide real redress to the thousands of affected homeowners. Families are living in apartments, duplexes and houses with fire safety issues…

Tá muintir na hÉireann ag tabhairt ar na sráideanna agus tá siad ag éileamh ar an Rialtas beart a dhéanamh le dul i ngleic leis na fadhbanna móra ó thaobh na géarchéime costais mhaireachtála. Má dhéanann an Rialtas praghsanna leictreachais a ghearradh go dtí an leibhéal a bhí siad roimh an ngéarchéim agus iad a choinneáil ag an leibhéal sin le linn an gheimhridh, tabharfaidh sé faoiseamh agus cinnteacht do theaghlaigh a bhfuil eagla orthu ó thaobh arduithe breise le linn an gheimhridh seo. Last weekend in Cork, 5,0…

The Minister is actually the Minister who opposed the reforms at European level last October. He opposed them. Sinn Féin has been raising these issues since last year. My colleagues here have been raising them with him. He has Tories on the brain. Maybe that is because he is in bed with the Irish Tories here. The fact is the Government has done the second-least amount in Europe to support households and businesses. Let us look outside of Britain. Yes, people living in Newry or Strabane will have certainty in terms …

Answer the question. Why do you refuse to do what other countries in Europe-----

On top of that, other countries are giving price certainty. Go back to sleep. The Government is doing nothing.

The Minister will not answer the question.

Cuirim fáilte roimh an deis a bheith ábalta labhairt inniu ar an tuairisc seo agus an fiosrúchán atá ag dul ar aghaidh anois le blianta fada ó thaobh an díolachán de Siteserv a tharla in 2012. Tá sé seo ar na bacáin le tamall fada. Caithfimid díriú isteach agus achoimre a dhéanamh ar cad chuige a raibh an coimisiún bunaithe sa chéad dul síos leis an bhfiosrúchán seo a dhéanamh, anois go bhfuil sé foilsithe sa tseachtain a chuaigh thart. I welcome the opportunity to speak following the long-awaited publication of th…

It is time for the Government to wake up to the reality of where ordinary workers are at. Families are facing a cost-of-living crisis they have never seen before. Many of them are being forced into decisions they thought they would never have to make, like whether to put food on the table or to keep the heat going. Families that once would donate to the food banks are now standing in those queues waiting for those same parcels. The choice before the State is simple. It can, on one hand, allow citizens to fall into …

The additional needs payment was one of the Government's ways of dealing with the cost-of-living crisis. We know it is not the panacea that has been suggested. However, the problem is that it does little to help those struggling. Furthermore, it has resulted in an increase in the workload for already overworked community welfare officers, CWOs. Does the Minister have any plans to employ additional staff to already short-staffed centres to aid these officers with their increasing workload and ensure there are no del…

My office has been contacted by people who work at the front line in the administration of these payments and they tell me they are at breaking point because of the understaffing, not just recently but for some time, and the demands that have been placed on them. It is not helped by Ministers telling everybody who cannot afford to put petrol in their car to run to the community welfare officer and everything will be fine. All the problems and solutions seem to be pointing in the same direction. It is left to those …