The OECD stated earlier today that Irish households experienced a massive drop in living standards last year. Under the Government, people have got poorer in the past 12 months. The amount of money that workers earn, adjusting for inflation, fell last year. Of course, people did not need the OECD to tell them this. Many of them have felt it as a result of their own bitter experience of rising prices. Many families are going from overdraft to overdraft at the moment. That is if they can get overdrafts. Many families are forced to go to moneylenders. Many families are maxed out. They are going without food and heat on a weekly basis.

I speak to many people who tell me that they are lying awake at night wondering which bill they can afford to pay this month or which bill they are going to have to put off until the next month. This State is now the sixth most expensive country in Europe. As a result, many people are being left behind. Some 20% of people here are living on the margins and below the poverty line.

The annual cost of food shopping for families is €1,000 higher than it was last year, and the food inflation rate is at 16.5%. That is incredibly difficult for families.

The worst part is that the Government is making money out of this. It is quids in on the back of the price increases families have been experiencing over the past while. We in Aontú have found out that the VAT yield on fuel and energy has never been as good for the Government. Last year, the VAT on electricity was at a record height, at €381 million, representing an increase of 40.4% on the figure for 2021. The Government has taken in more money in increased taxes and profits from energy semi-States than it gave back through the electricity credit. Can you believe that? The Government is taking more out of people’s pockets while giving some money back and then expecting a clap on the back for doing it.

Today, we learned the shocking news that the price of electricity in Ireland is the highest in Europe at the moment. That is a disgrace. It is an indictment of the Government. The unit price of electricity in this State is nearly double the European average. Gas prices in Ireland are also among the highest. Therefore, rip-off Ireland is back with a vengeance, and it is being brought to us by Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party. The most frustrating element of this is that the Government is standing idly by in terms of solutions. The Italian Government has brought in a windfall tax and has collected €4 billion, and Germany and Spain brought in windfall taxes in December. Even the British Tory Government brought in a windfall tax and is deriving revenue from the super-normal profits, yet we have nothing but tumbleweed from the Irish Government on this issue. The Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, committed to a windfall tax six months ago in this House. Practically every fortnight since, a Minister has stood up and said it was on the way in a matter of weeks, but these are very long weeks. What steps will the Government now take to lower the cost of electricity, and when exactly will it happen?

Under the current Government, and indeed the previous one I led, living standards rose and poverty rates went down. This is a simple fact that the Deputy can check if he chooses to do so. In most years since 2014, we have seen incomes or wages rising faster than inflation, or faster than increases in the cost of living, and as a result we have seen incomes and living standards rise and poverty rates fall. This may not be the case every single year for every single data point, but the general trend since 2014 has seen falling poverty, rising living standards and wages rising faster than the cost of living.

Yes, there was a significant setback last year. We know why that happened. It happened because of the invasion of Ukraine and an international inflation crisis, which we had to deal with. The Government took numerous measures to help people with the cost of living, and I will not go through them today. They were taken before the budget, at the time of the budget and since the budget. They are being taken even this week. This week, people in receipt of pensions and weekly social welfare payments will receive the bonus payment of €200 per month to help them with the cost of living. All families with children under 18 will receive a child payment in June. The supports we are providing to people to help them with the cost of living will continue throughout the summer, and, of course, there will be a budget in the autumn.

There will be a windfall tax. The Deputy will know from the legislative programme published by the Chief Whip only yesterday, or last week perhaps, that it is on for this session. We will raise the windfall tax, and that will yield money we can use to help businesses and families with the high cost of energy. Also, we have taken a special dividend from the ESB. The ESB made extraordinary profits because of the increase in the price of gas in the wholesale markets. The Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform, Deputy Donohoe, and the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Deputy Eamon Ryan, worked together to make sure the ESB would pay a special dividend. That, again, is money we can use to help people and businesses with the high cost of energy.

The Taoiseach can argue with the OECD about the facts on whether incomes are falling. Incomes are falling, and that is what it is saying. The question to be asked is why the Government has allowed the highest electricity prices in Europe to exist in this State. Why is it that the Government has allowed some of the highest gas prices in the whole European Union to exist in this State? Why does Mr. Gerry Clarke, 77, from Meath, have an electricity bill of €1,700? Why does Kitty from Trim, who is 100 years old, have an electricity bill of more than a grand? These are the questions the Government needs to ask. The fact that its Bill on a windfall tax is still at general-scheme stage is incredible. People cannot eat a general scheme.

Some people believe it is incompetence and some believe it is by design. There is a lot of good argument for incompetence. Just look at housing and health for examples of that, but I believe there is an ideological reason prices are so high here. It is in the Green Party's interests to have high electricity and energy prices because high energy prices actually reduce consumption. It is its policy to look for high energy prices. I think the Green Party tail is wagging the Government dog on this issue and, as a result, many families throughout the country are literally unable to live. When will the Bill on the windfall tax be in place?

The Bill will be published and enacted before the summer recess, with the co-operation of the House, and will raise money we can use to help families with the high cost of living. I expect to see energy prices fall. We are already seeing petrol and diesel prices fall and I expect to see electricity and gas prices fall throughout the course of the year.

The Taoiseach has said this for months.

I am not arguing with the OECD. The OECD report says that incomes rose last year but the cost of living rose faster. However, that was the first year where that was true since the crash about ten or 15 years ago. Under this Government and the previous one, almost every year, incomes have been rising faster than the cost of living and poverty rates have been falling. There was a significant setback last year because of international factors well beyond our control. We will be back on track this year. I expect that, this year, we will see incomes rise faster than inflation.

If it is down to international factors, why is the cost of electricity higher here than in any other country?