The Rural Independent Group of TDs including Tipperary’s Mattie McGrath is now urging the government to safeguard the €600 million windfall profits and collect a €600 million dividend payment from the ESB. The Dáil grouping proposes utilising these funds to provide another €600 energy credit to the 2.2 million households, including pay-as-you-go customers, who benefited under the initial energy credit plan.
In a fiery statement delivered from Tipperary today, Deputy Mattie Mc Grath, called out the government owned ESB for making record profits in 2022 while households and families across the country have seen no reduction in their electricity bills. According to Deputy Mc Grath the ESB’s operating profit of over “€847 million is nothing short of outrageous, and the proposed dividend of €327 million to be paid by the company to the state is wholly insufficient.” The TD wants Energy Minister Eamon Ryan to seek a higher dividend to the state which owns 96% of the ESB and for all funds raised by the proposed cap on market revenues, windfall or solidarity tax, and ESB dividend to be utilised to reduce electricity prices for consumers.
