FINANCE MINISTER SIMON Harris has signalled that the government is not in favour of a domestic windfall tax on energy companies making exceptional profits, and that it prefers a coordinated EU-wide approach. 

In response to a Parliamentary Question from Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on Finance Pearse Doherty, Fine Gael leader Harris said that while communication from the EU Commission notes that member states can take an “individual approach” to windfall profits, “No EU-wide approach has as yet been agreed”. 

Harris further said a “State-by-state approach would risk fragmenting or unbalancing the level playing field for the single market for electricity”. 

While he noted the financial pressure “on households and businesses arising from the ongoing conflict in the Middle East”, Harris said that Ireland taking individual action on taxing windfall profits could impact “investment, market behaviour, and energy supply”. 

Doherty challenged this view. He said that Harris has now “confirmed” that he plans to allow energy companies to “pocket all the money being made from the energy crisis, despite the green light from Europe to step in and tax these windfall profits.”

“Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil are demanding belt-tightening for ordinary people, all while they shamefully protect bumper profits for energy companies,” he added. 

Several Irish firms that act as both energy generators and suppliers made bumper profits in 2025.

Bord Gáis Energy reported an operating profit of more than €72 million in 2025 across its integrated portfolio of energy trading, retail supply, and generation-related activities, while continuing long-term capital investment in electricity generation infrastructure.

ESB reported a profit of €636 million in 2025, supported by earnings across its generation, wholesale trading, networks and retail supply operations, while investing €2.7 billion in energy infrastructure and system decarbonisation.

How are other EU states approaching windfall profits? 

The Portuguese government is currently drafting a bill to temporarily tax the “excess or unexpected profits” of energy firms. For the most part, this measure will target energy producers and generators who have benefited from wholesale energy price spikes. 

In April, five EU member states wrote to the European Commission calling for fresh EU action to tax “excess profits” being made by energy firms across Europe. 

Germany, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Austria argued in a joint letter that the conflict in the Middle East has caused prices to rise, which has placed a “significant burden” on European citizens. 

They called for the commission to “swiftly” develop an EU-wide contribution instrument to tax windfall profits. 

“It would send a clear message that those who profit from the consequences of the war must do their part to ease the burden on the public,” the finance ministers of each country put forward. 

The five countries also urged the Commission to go further than it did in 2022 and 2023 via the Temporary Solidarity Contribution (TSC), which taxed energy producers on windfall profits gained in part due to the energy crisis that resulted from the war in Ukraine. 

They suggested that the commission should consider how the foreign profits of multinational oil companies can be covered by tax measures “in a more targeted way than was the case with the 2022 solidarity contribution.”

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Which firms in Ireland were taxed last time round? 

In 2023, new EU regulations required member states to claw back excess profits made during the energy crisis. Ireland legislated for this through the Energy (Windfall Gains in the Energy Sector) Act. 

The tax hit upstream oil, gas and electricity generators on profits made in 2022 and 2023 that were more than 20% above their 2018-2021 average, by applying a 75% charge on the excess. 

ESB, SSE and Energia were taxed via the TSC on profits made by their generation divisions in 2022 and 2023, while Corrib gas field operators Vermilion Energy Ireland and Nephin Energy were also taxed. Smaller independent power producers selling to the wholesale market were also charged.

(The Irish system also worked alongside a separate electricity revenue cap, which limited extra earnings by power generators when wholesale prices were high, so some windfall gains were taken through price limits rather than the TSC.) 

European Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis last month said that member state governments could be better at designing measures to capture excess profits from oil, gas and electricity firms. 

He also stated that the commission is not recommending any EU initiative because the previous application “of a windfall tax… produced mixed results”. 

Ireland does not host major power plants or fossil fuel extraction firms like other EU member states, but the Central Statistics Office still found that in 2023, €350 million was collected through windfall taxes. 

However, these figures combine the TSC with the electricity revenue cap and other related energy windfall charges, so they do not show a clean total of TSC payments alone.