Is mian liom cúpla ceist a chur ar an Taoiseach faoi ghéarchéim an chostais mhaireachtála. Mar is eol dó, tá neart daoine ar fud na hÉireann ag streachailt le costais laethúla na tíre seo. Is deacair an rud é dóibh iad féin a bheathú nó na soilse a choinneáil ar siúl.

Eight energy companies have put up their prices in recent weeks. These increases will add hundreds of euro to people's energy bills, which are already the highest in Europe. We all know that Donald Trump and his disastrous war are to blame for rising prices but there are things the Taoiseach can do.

Why is it that Irish households are expected to shoulder the entire burden of these skyrocketing costs, especially when the profits of energy companies are booming? They have never been healthier. Just yesterday, the ESB announced its profits for the first six months of the year. They were up nearly €100 million. Today, we learned that its CEO is in line for a salary boost of a staggering €161,000, an increase of 51%. Energy companies are making enormous profits while pensioners go cold.

Instead of allowing this blatant and scandalous profiteering, the Government could introduce a windfall tax on their excess profits. The Taoiseach could take a stand by telling energy companies the burden of paying for these costs will not be borne by Irish households and that the people of this country, who are already paying the highest electricity prices in Europe, will not be bled dry. A windfall tax would push energy companies into reducing prices by threatening to take their entire excess profits. This would directly help households that are really struggling.

My questions are very straightforward and I would appreciate straightforward answers. Does the Taoiseach agree that it is immoral for these companies to be making such eye-watering profits? Will he introduce a windfall tax on their excess profits?

The energy crisis is fundamentally a global, external situation in terms of war in the Middle East, particularly the war in Iran and now the situation in Yemen with the Houthis gaining control of key ports and potentially a key waterway. It is compounding what has happened in respect of the Ukraine crisis and the massive increase in inflation and energy prices that arose from that.

In the first instance, the scale of the Government's response has been very significant, at about €1.4 billion to date. No windfall tax will come near that. Let us be very clear and straight about that. I think our last windfall tax, which was introduced during the Ukrainian crisis, might have brought in €200 million or more. I can get the precise figure for Deputy O'Callaghan. That is not without implications across the sector as well. There are a number of factors we have to take on board in respect of that.

The budget and the measures we have taken are and have been targeted in particular at low-income groups. The Parliamentary Budget Office, in its review, will say that even the measures taken in respect of diesel and petrol were proportionally better for lower income groups in our society. Add to that the changes we made to the fuel allowance and the child support payments, which were record increases, in the last budget. Furthermore, there was the expansion of the free fuel allowance in terms of the number of people who benefit from it. We have had energy supports through the Minister for Climate, Environment and Energy, Deputy Darragh O'Brien, which have hit about 640,000 families in terms of getting their prices down long term because of installation of solar or various other retrofitting measures. That has been quite impactful and there will be more on that front.

In the forthcoming budget, the cost of living will be the central focus of the Government, particularly in terms of the income tax system and reducing the tax burden on people, the home heating situation and further supports for energy efficiency measures, retrofitting and so on. We will keep all taxation measures under review.

I accept that in times of crisis the supply chain, be it wholesale or retail, can inflate, or there can be price increases that are more the responsibility of the supply chain than the actual crisis itself.

Some work has been done on that in the UK. Our focus now, coming into the budget, is to have a range of supports to try to protect people. We will also look at childcare and the disability sector in terms of easing the burden. However, I think it has to be targeted and focused on those who are enduring the most of what is undoubtedly a significant hike in energy prices more generally.

I thank the Taoiseach. Excuse me, I was distracted. I call Deputy O'Callaghan.

That is unusual.

The vast majority of what this Government has done has not been targeted. The Taoiseach is kidding himself if he thinks that.

I asked the Taoiseach two very straightforward questions. I asked him to give his view as to whether it is immoral for energy companies to be booking record windfall profits off the backs of people who are struggling with the energy crisis. Does he think that is immoral? Does he have any view on it? Does he have anything to say about that? It is a straightforward question.

Keeping things under review is no good. Households are struggling now. We have put forward a proposal for a windfall tax, the aim of which is to reduce energy bills because companies could no longer pocket and keep excess profits under the proposal. That would create an incentive for them to reduce energy prices and bring down people's bills directly. It is a very straightforward proposal. It can and should be done. It has been done previously. Will the Government do it? Will it take action as quickly as possible to reduce people's energy bills by introducing a windfall tax? I have asked two very straightforward questions.

Of course it is immoral to exploit any emergency such as that we are experiencing right now. It is absolutely immoral for any part of the supply chain, be it a wholesaler, retailer or anybody else, to exploit the international crisis to extract more from people. In respect-----

So, will the Taoiseach act?

Take it handy. There is no evidence that putting on a windfall tax would reduce any prices. We did it during the last crisis and prices did not reduce. However, its merit is in bringing some revenue back to the Government in terms of any windfall gains that were made. It does not have wide prevalence in respect of who in this country we could hit. We are not blessed with massive oil or energy companies. We also have issues around refining and so on, which we have to be careful about, frankly, on the supply side. It is easy to come up with simplistic things. I accept that we did a windfall tax the last time. Revenue of €200 million or more came in. It did not bring down prices but it at least gave the Government back some revenue. We are keeping that under review. It is something that has not been ruled in or out.