Ireland to get up to €2bn from EU windfall tax on energy companies 

Ireland will receive up to €2bn from a new cap on energy profits due to be hammered out by European energy ministers today. Picture: Danny Lawson/PA Wire

Ireland will receive up to €2bn from a new cap on energy profits due to be hammered out by European energy ministers today.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said he is confident a windfall tax on energy companies will be agreed in Brussels.

Mr Ryan said this European-wide energy measure will amount to a cap on profits of large firms.

"What we are going to do and agree in Brussels today is on the profits, the windfall profits, that's what we need to cap."

Mr Ryan said he expects that Ireland will receive between €1bn and €2bn from the levy, however, he said the amount gathered will be influenced by other factors such as the price of gas and it is therefore not possible to know the exact amount we will gain.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan said he is confident a windfall tax on energy companies will be agreed in Brussels. Picture: Maxwells

Meanwhile, Mr Ryan said a low-cost loan scheme to help households with retrofitting costs will be now introduced in 2023.

He said the scheme has been delayed as it is underwritten by the European Investment Bank.

"I have just signed off and will be going to Government with the approach that we have agreed in terms of which lending institutions and how it will be delivered.

"It will be introduced in the first quarter of next year, it's just taken time, mainly to be honest, the delay has been getting European sign-off," he told RTÉ's Morning Ireland.