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energy companies to rake in enormous profits at the expense of working people and families. Sinn Féin's legislation seeks to finally bring fairness and accountability into the energy market. It seeks to strengthen the powers of the regulator, rein in excessive electricity price hikes and ensure greater

issue. I ask that the Taoiseach take on my colleague, Deputy Ged Nash’s excessive prices Bill, which the Government supported on Second Stage. It would force supermarket giants to publish their profits and bring about price transparency, thereby driving down the price of a weekly shop

enormously from an affordable, high-quality facility run on a not-for-profit basis. Again, Glanmire ticks that box. The initial phase of the programme will acquire and refurbish places that can provide in excess of 100 childcare places and facilities that can open in late

price rises continued, he would haul the supermarkets in, bring them to heel and enact his own legislation to make them publish their profits in Ireland and give the CCPC more market surveillance and enforcement powers. I heard the Minister of State, Deputy Dillon, on the "News … somehow that there was no evidence of price gouging and excessive pricing in Ireland even though it could not possibly make a conclusive determination on that because it had no information of any quality on the very profits the companies it was supposed to be examining were making

facilitate evictions, throwing renters to the wolves while protecting the profits of vulture funds. The Government should be standing up for these renters, banning rent increases and no-fault evictions, and closing loopholes which allow excessive service charges to rise out of control and out of affordability

reset, allows landlords to exploit the gap between tenancies, hiking rents to exorbitant, so-called market rates. This is not policy; it is profiteering. Analysis shows this will claw extra thousands of euro from renters annually, pushing more people into poverty and insecurity. In Meath East already … bedroom apartments go for in the region of €2,000 to €2,600. What we are faced with here are rents far in excess of that, rents that will be simply unaffordable. The Government's duty is to protect citizens and not portfolios. Instead of cutting and freezing

expansion, national and international price trends, and the profitability of major grocery retailers. The CCPC concluded that while grocery prices have risen significantly since 2021, there is no evidence of a failure of competition or of excessive pricing in the sector. The CCPC plays an active and enforcement

hardship and suffering of so many people this winter as a result, let us not forget, of Trump and Israel's warmongering, the profiteering of energy companies and the indifference of our Government and other governments to the hardship and suffering that ordinary people go through … students who will be marching tomorrow will be shivering with cold and afraid to turn on the heat. This leads to excess deaths. It is estimated that between 1,500 and 2,800 people, mostly elderly people and vulnerable people, will die because of energy poverty this winter

profits of €650 million last year, half a million people are in energy arrears; — the Deposit Re-turn Scheme was introduced in 2024, adding 25 cent and 15 cent per can and bottle onto consumers' shopping bills upfront at the till, and it is an amount in excess … house by an estimated €50,000 per house, and this is also a market activation initiative, as it would improve viability; — reduce profits at semi-State ESB to zero, allow it to wash its face, cover its costs and invest, as this would save every household €300; — reform

return the energy credits and to give households €400 off their energy bills. It refused. We called on it to tackle the excessive standing charges. There has been no action. We called on the Government to ensure that data centres pay their fair share of network costs … pick up that tab. Again, there has been no action. While workers and families struggle, there is no windfall tax on the enormous profits being made by energy companies ripping their customers off over and over again, and that shows the priorities of this Government

frostbite. Longer term there is real concern about its impact on the mental health of adolescents. The damage it does can be severe. Excessive use blocks the development of the coating that protects nerves and can lead to spinal cord damage. The aims of the Bill are straightforward … aims to make it hard for the product to be purchased by under 18-year-olds. Criminal gangs are aware of the profits they can make from selling this product. They are purchasing it in bulk cheaply and selling it for a profit to young people

there also needed to be a ban on rent increases. Without a ban on rent increases, all you are doing is putting more profit in landlords' pockets because that is where it ends up. The statistics show that to be the case. We do not even have … compare the first quarter of this year with the last quarter of 2023, we will see that rents increased by a sum in excess of the renter's tax credit. If the Government had banned rent increases at the end of 2023, without even introducing a tax credit

just the case in Ireland, but also in the US, Germany and the UK. Build to rent as an investment has become less profitable because of rising interest rates. It is not about our rent regulation system, but the wider macroeconomic situation. When institutional investors are such … sure if the Minister is familiar with the term "regulatory capture". It is a concept in public policy that refers to the excessive influence of special interests on regulators' operations and decisions. The result is that, instead of regulators serving the public interest, they serve the special interests

cent, which is applied to gas and electricity to 2030; — a continuation of the €400 income tax disregard for certain profits arising from the micro-generation of electricity for a further three years to end 2028; and — an extension of the Accelerated Capital Allowances scheme for energy efficient … competitiveness of the Irish economy'; — while electricity credits previously played an important role, it should be noted that, despite costing in excess of €3.3 billion, this measure did not permanently reduce the cost of electricity nor are they fiscally sustainable, therefore, the Government has prioritised measures which reduce

thought 3% was too low because the appreciation in the value of land that people are sitting on is probably significantly in excess of 3% at the moment. It can still pay for land speculators and hoarders to just sit on land. They pay the tax - which … This suggests that we need much more aggressive measures in order to deal with land hoarding by people who are trying to profiteer from the housing crisis

increase rents. There are good and bad landlords, and good and bad tenants but this particular Bill will incentivise the bad landlords to profiteer. We support the rolling out of these rent caps to the counties that were previously not covered. However, the whole centre part … increase market activity is to increase rents. Rents are €2,000 per month on average for a new rental agreement. That is already excessive, damaging and too high. At the core of the project is to increase rents further. That is a phenomenal so-called solution from

European Union (EU) countries following decreases in wholesale prices; — many energy suppliers have recently increased energy prices despite the sector boasting substantial operating profits; — the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) has warned that without energy credits and Government action to lower people's bills there will … renewable transition is also structured and distributed regressively; and — Ireland imports 80 per cent of the energy we consume leaving energy bills excessively exposed to market fluctuations and geopolitical matters, often placing upward pressure on household bills; regrets: — the Government's continued position that they will not continue

collects in underlying revenue. The Government is spending more than it collects in underlying revenue. Just think about that. After excluding these excess corporation tax receipts, the Government is not heeding the call. Or, rather, it has heeded the call this year but it did not in previous … reduction in VAT for the hospitality sector, and while the small café benefits, so, too, does the larger entity that is making massive profits. Ronald McDonald gets the tax breaks while the McDonald family members living in Clondalkin, Lucan, Palmerstown and so on struggle to keep up with

years which they have been allowed to keep in full, combined with ESB's refusal to make appropriate use of their €898 million profit last year in response to this national crisis as well as their public comments that the costs of repairing the electricity network … being able to operate fully because of not having phone lines and broadband. Those who are either not covered by insurance or the excess is such that they are unable to claim must be compensated. The 9% VAT rate for the hospitality sector must now be brought forward

well. During the Clonburris SDZ debate, I pointed that out. Unfortunately, for various reasons I will not get into, Sinn Féin, People Before Profit, the Labour Party and the Social Democrats voted down motions to move housing towards the train station, go up a level … soccer AstroTurf pitch in the Clonburris SDZ and a couple of smaller, across the pitch facilities for a population that could be in excess of 25,000. That is not sufficient. We have to start looking at all-weather pitches or properly drained grass pitches. There will have

community. They are not opposed to capital gains tax in principle but a 33% rate on a property they are not selling is excessive by any measure. The reality is stark. Their child is now considering emigrating, leaving behind a good job, because they do not want their … properties or speculative assets. In many cases, the property is the only significant asset a family has and the intention is not for profit but for continuity, stability and giving the next generation a foothold in the housing market. We already have models that balance support with safeguards

behaviour of these maniacs that has created the problems we are experiencing. The problems here in Ireland are even greater because of our excessive reliance on fossil fuels. We cannot keep subsidising high fossil fuel prices or continue relying on fossil fuels for a couple of different reasons … visibility in the context of a potential activation of certain supports during another energy shock is intriguing. Why would we tell highly profitable fossil fuel energy companies that regardless of the increases they impose on consumers, we are going to subsidise that and every household anyway? That does

People are selling goods and services to the State but we have no idea of who really we are dealing with or their profit margins. We also do not have a level playing field when it comes to negotiating on cost because we cannot see what kind … those who will be going through the affordable purchase scheme will pay. On Part V, the city councils are routinely paying well in excess of €500,000 of houses. In one instance, €717,000 was paid by Dublin City Council for a two-bedroom unit under Part

windfall tax to be imposed on the large energy companies, including the wind farm owners where there are high profits, once profits go over a certain amount. That money should be used and ploughed into retrofitting for middle-income families who do not qualify for the free scheme … seen reports from it and it is a toothless tiger. It has turned out to be useless. Last year, €9.5 billion in excess was given out but nothing happened for workers. Nothing happened to the taxation of middle-income workers, those people on between

disappointed that the Social Democrats, in particular, supported the Government on this Bill. Only 15 Labour Party, Green Party and People Before Profit, PBP, TDs voted against it. It is easy to say we want to protect and promote our biodiversity but we also have to vote … repeatedly warned about declining water quality in rivers and estuaries, particularly due to nutrient pollution associated with intensive agriculture and wastewater failures. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus are fuelling eutrophication, algal blooms and oxygen depletion in aquatic ecosystems. That is why the EU nitrates directive exists. It was introduced