The cost-of-living crisis is having a devastating impact on workers, families and businesses right across the country. Since 2021, energy prices have trebled. They have more than doubled since Russia invaded Ukraine last year. Average energy costs for consumers are now a staggering €4,300 per year. Everyone getting their gas and electricity bills in recent weeks will have been shocked by the amounts. As consumers suffer, energy companies are profiteering from this crisis and making what can only be described as obscene profits. At what point will the Taoiseach say enough is enough? These relentless price increases cannot continue. The toll they are taking on both families and businesses is disastrous. Nearly 270,000 customers were in arrears on their bills at the end of last year. Across the country, many families are choosing between heating their homes and feeding their families. The impact on businesses, particularly small and medium-sized businesses, has also been ruinous. Many otherwise viable businesses are facing the prospect of closure simply because they cannot afford to keep the light or heat on. Just €26 million out of a total budget of €1.2 billion has so far been drawn down from the temporary business energy support scheme, TBESS. This low take-up is evidence that the scheme is simply not fit for purpose. It is time the Government tried a new approach. A targeted energy price cap would cap the price of average energy usage for both businesses and households. This would mean that everyone would get their essential energy needs at a reasonable and affordable cost. Those who use in excess of that amount would pay more. Wealthier households would not disproportionately benefit and it would also incentivise energy conservation.

This is something that was introduced in Germany in December so we know it can be done. It would reduce prices and, crucially, provide security and certainty to households and businesses.

The Government introduced electricity credits at the start of this crisis because it said it was the quickest way to get supports to people. Now, more than a year later, the Government has had the time to design a better model of supports. A targeted price cap is the best way to support businesses and households, but it must be accompanied by a windfall tax to ensure energy companies cannot price gouge while the cap is in place. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, first promised a windfall tax in August and the EU signed off on one in September. Many other EU countries, including Germany and Spain, to name just two, have introduced a windfall tax. Why is the Government dithering?

Tomorrow, the Social Democrats will table a motion calling for targeted energy price caps. Will the Government support our motion and introduce them? When will we see the long-promised windfall tax finally introduced?

I thank the Deputy. I want to acknowledge the enormous pressure a lot of people, families and businesses are under because of the rise in energy costs. We have seen a dramatic rise in energy costs over the past two years, almost entirely driven by international factors, and exacerbated by the war in Ukraine and other factors related to it. In fairness, a lot has been done by the Government to help people with the rising cost of living. I might read them out later, but I can identify 25 individual measures alone that the Government has introduced only in the past year or so to help people with the cost of living in lots of different ways. We have always acknowledged that it is impossible to fully insulate everyone from the rising cost of living, though we strive to insulate those on the lowest incomes and those dependent on pensions and social welfare to the greatest extent that we can.

The Deputy mentioned the fact that some energy companies will make very large profits this year. They made very large profits last year and will do so again this year because of the high cost of energy. In many cases, they will make profits they never thought they could make. That ranges from the Corrib gas field to oil and petrol refineries and State-owned companies like the ESB. That is not fair, right or okay, and we will act on it. When it comes to State companies making very large profits, we can use the dividend system to take a special dividend and use the money to help families and businesses with the cost of living. When it comes to private companies, we have a windfall tax. The Minister, Deputy Ryan, updated the Cabinet on that earlier today so there will be such a tax on energy companies. I do not want to give too much detail, but the plans are very well advanced and hundreds of millions of euro will come in from a windfall tax on energy companies. That is money we did not factor into the budget for this year. It is additional funds we can use to help defray the cost of living.

When it comes to businesses, we acknowledge that the take-up of TBESS was a fraction of what we thought would be. The Ministers, Deputies McGrath and Coveney, are working on enhancements to that scheme so that more businesses qualify for it and they get larger amounts. We acknowledge that the take-up and drawdown of the scheme has been a fraction of what we thought would be.

We are reluctant to introduce price caps because they are very hard to cost. Essentially, if we introduce a price cap, the Government is saying that this is the cap people have to pay and we will pay the rest no matter what it is. Even if it is limited and targeted, it is very difficult to work out what it will cost and there are big risks involved in that. It is essentially a contract for difference, which the Deputy will remember in respect of Anglo Irish Bank. While the Deputy gave examples of Germany and Spain, it is also something that the Truss government tried in Britain and it did not work out so well.

I thank the Taoiseach. I welcome the indication that we are moving to a windfall tax, however late in the day. What is the timescale for the introduction of such a tax?

Will that be retrospective?

The Taoiseach spoke about the main energy companies and the extent of the profits they have been making. We know that in the first six months of last year, the ESB made profits of €390 million, yet it imposed three separate price hikes last year. The profits of Bord Gáis Energy went up by 74% in the first six months of last year, yet it increased electricity prices on four occasions and gas prices on five occasions. Does the Taoiseach not accept that it is time to call a halt? We need to introduce the windfall tax but we also need to ensure there are direct benefits for households and businesses from that windfall tax. We need to reach a point where energy bills are again somewhat affordable. No deals are available at the moment and we need urgent action on this.

A windfall tax on energy companies is weeks away. I do not think we are late in the day because companies pay tax now on profits they made last year and last year only ended six or eight weeks ago. We will have that tax in place in the near future. It will be retrospective in the sense that the companies will pay it on the profits they made last year and will pay it again on the profits they make this year, so we will have two years of revenue coming in from that windfall tax. We will be able to use that to help businesses and households with the high cost of energy and the high cost of living. It will be a few months before we start seeing those gas and electricity prices fall but I believe we will start seeing them fall in a few months' time - first for businesses and. subsequent to that, for households.

We do not have exact figures yet but we do anticipate that a number of State energy companies will record very high profits, with the ESB being one of those. There are two mechanisms we can use to recoup some of those profits. One is the special dividend while the other is the windfall tax. We intend to use those mechanisms to take that money back and make sure we can use it to help homes, families and businesses with the cost of living.