Varadkar says it's 'too soon to say' if energy firm…

Varadkar says it's 'too soon to say' if energy firm tax will be used for more cost of living help for citizens

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said that it is “too soon to make a call” on whether money earned from the windfall tax on energy will be used to provide more cost of living payments.

Climate Minister Eamon Ryan announced on Tuesday that Cabinet had agreed to place a cap on all market revenues of non-gas electricity generators.

A solidarity contribution will also be taken from companies active in fossil fuel production who are making excess profits.

It is estimated that these measures could raise between €300m and €1.9bn.

When asked if he would commit to this money being put towards further energy credits, Mr Varadkar told the Irish Mirror that it was too soon to say.

He said that many of the other cost of living measures announced during the Budget have yet to be introduced.

“We will review the situation later in the year to see whether we need to extend and do more,” he said.

“We will have some resources to do that, as you rightly point out. One of the advantages now of having this windfall tax is that we have additional resources that we didn't have on Budget Day and we can use that to provide further help for households and businesses next year.

“But it's too soon to make that call now. We need to see where we stand in terms of energy prices, whether they're going up or down or staying the same. We also need to see where we stand economically more broadly.”

Elsewhere, Mr Varakar said that the issue about toll price increases will have to be sorted in the next number of weeks as he recommitted to “softening the blow”.

A row has been brewing in Government over Transport Infrastructure Ireland’s (TII) recent decision to put up prices at tolls across the country.

Mr Varadkar said that he is not happy with the increases and committed the Government to seeing “if it’s possible to either reduce the increase or defer it for a period of time”.

Minister Ryan, meanwhile, said that while he would look at the issue , he would not be in favour of deferring the increases if it came out of the Department of Transport’s public transport or road budgets.

Mr Varadkar said on Wednesday that the issue would have to be sorted by January 1 when the toll increases are due.

However, Mr Varadar dismissed suggestions that excise duty cuts on petrol and diesel could be extended to counteract the toll increases, calling them “separate matters”.

“We are in discussions at the moment at Government level to see if we can do something to alleviate or soften the blow of those toll increases,” he said.

He continued: “We just need to say we need to work out options. We haven't really had a proper opportunity to sit down and talk about this.

“The Department of Transport is drawing up options. One thing Minister Ryan has said, which I think is very reasonable, is that he doesn't want to see the money taken out of the roads budget. That's a budget that we need to maintain our existing road infrastructure.