Phew, winter of our discontent has a happy ending!
‘Now is the winter of our discontent…’ That’s one of the most quoted lines as we head into a winter of catastrophic energy bills.
And woe betide anyone who doesn’t row in with gloomily catastrophising what will undoubtedly be an extraordinarily painful financial crisis this winter.
Former UK minister Edwina Currie – and one-time guest interviewee on A Question of Money – got savaged online this week for daring to suggest some simple energy-saving measures such as putting foil behind your radiators.
And she’s not the only one. Suggest any ways to alleviate the energy or financial crisis and you’re apparently ‘out of touch’. So what are we supposed to do? Nothing? That Shakespeare gem on the ‘winter of our discontent’ is rarely completed to reveal its full meaning. It actually ends: ‘made glorious summer by this sun (or son) of York’.
The quote refers to a brutal war won but only after expending much courage and effort. Far from gloomy, the full quote basically says better times are ahead if we fight our way out of this mess.
Windfall fallacy
A windfall tax on energy companies would raise billions in the UK where there are many oil and gas producers.
But it could prove a bit of a damp squib here as most companies don’t produce energy but merely sell it on. Three providers have already pulled out of Ireland, reducing competitiveness, and others may be financially threatened.
ESB, Bord Gáis and SSE Airtricity do generate energy through wind farms and have been making decent profits.
But hitting them with a ‘windfall tax’ wouldn’t make a huge difference.
‘There’s no major windfall for the Government to go after,’ says Bonkers.ie expert Daragh Cassidy. ‘The [State-owned] ESB is making record profits. But we [the State] took a record dividend of €126m from the ESB and paid out around €450m in the form of the energy credit this year – so most of this has been paid back. Bord Gáis Éireann recently made a half-year profit of €40m in Ireland which angered many people.
‘But say everything is given back to customers – that’s a refund of around €150 for each person. So it still leaves a big
gap.’ Even so, it could be worth pursuing… every little helps!
Turning off the lights in public buildings at 8pm, and organising staff so they don’t work in offices all on their own, wasting heat and light – those are two of the Government measures touted to reduce our energy usage.
Seriously? We’ve had Greens in power for years and this still happens? Shouldn’t it all have been done a long time ago?
Cough up, Paschal!
If the Government wants to charge a windfall tax on whoever is profiting from the current crisis – it should start with itself!
Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe puts on ‘the poor mouth’ in advance of the looming Budget to dampen expectations so he can pull a few rabbits out of the hat at the last minute and appear to be generous.
But Paschal is actually fooling no one.
This isn’t 2008 when the government went bust.
This time around, it’s raking in money from rising prices. The Government is the profiteer-in-chief!
A massive €50bn poured into State coffers in the eight months to the end of August – more revenue than at any other time in our history.
Tax revenue was up 26% giving Paschal a €6.3bn surplus – on the back of the soaring prices that are causing us so much pain.
If he values his party’s political hide, he’d better give us back a sizeable chunk of that dosh and stop talking about sub-inflation increases in the Budget at the end of this month!