2026-05-12

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time." In Ireland we have huge potential for a hopeful vision and we have a natural gift of 540 GW of renewable energy in offshore wind. We can achieve energy independence if we have the requisite motivation and we can return to the days when we had the lowest electricity prices in Europe, if there is State investment and development. However, we are currently paying the highest electricity prices in the EU. Recent reports from the ESRI and Eurostat show that we are paying 40% more than the European average, €480 more in average bills and we had the third-highest increase in costs, behind Austria and Romania. These figures are from 2025 and do not take into account the recent increases in the cost of pre-pay power. Heat and power are not luxuries; they are basic necessities that should not cause households to spiral into debt. There is now a record number of households in arrears, with nearly 320,000 unable to keep up. Their debt levels are higher now and they last far longer than ever before. We in Sinn Féin are not the only ones calling this into question. The ESRI has called for an independent investigation and for the regulator to release the relevant data for independent analysis. However, the Government and the regulator have refused. One of the key drivers, according to Eurostat, is network costs. The Government has not intervened. It says we must get the balance right and keep our powder dry, there is nothing it can do and it is all the fault of the war in Ukraine or now the attacks on Iran. However, the question remains: why are we paying the highest price in Europe? Why do our bills fall more slowly here in response to falling wholesale costs when compared with other countries? This do-nothing Government is out of touch. It is sitting on its hands while people are pushed to the pin of their collar. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael continue to act as if workers and families are in a position to wait until the budget later on this year, but people are struggling here and now. They keep asking themselves just how bad it has to get before the Government will step in and act. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael want people to believe that these prices are out of their control and that they are too complex and technical to fix, but we can see that Irish households are being fleeced. Ordinary workers and families are being hit with sky-high bills, as well as exorbitant rents and steadily increasing grocery prices. On top of that, mortgage payments and car insurance costs - which are still stubbornly high despite all the breaks and concessions given to that industry - and the cost of childcare are all increasing. The list goes on. After all, the Minister must know that Ireland once had the lowest electricity prices in the EU, and now we have the highest. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael presided over this change. Not only did they do nothing to stop it, they have reinforced the system that caused it. They have chosen not to intervene. They have chosen to protect the corporate bottom line instead of intervening to protect ordinary workers and families. People are saying the same thing: enough is enough. Meanwhile, energy giants are posting enormous profits, driven by crisis, war and instability. It is not just wrong; it is indefensible. This is not inevitable. There are solutions. This can be fixed by political decisions, but just requires the will so to do. In Sinn Féin we believe in transparency, fairness and an energy system that delivers for the public good rather than corporate profit. If companies are not profiteering or price-gouging, they should put their money where their mouth is and prove it. They should be held to account. That is why we are bringing forward legislation which is practical and contains common-sense measures to give the energy regulator more teeth to hold the companies to account. Energy credits are essential as an interim measure because we need immediate action. We are calling for the reintroduction of energy credits to give families breathing space now, while we fix the deeper structural problems that have left Ireland with some of the highest energy costs in Europe. We want to reduce prices for the long term but, to do that, we need to address the fundamental flaws at the heart of our energy markets. Our proposals here would strengthen the oversight of energy companies' pricing and hedging practices, allow the regulator to investigate and sanction anti-competitive behaviour and increase transparency by requiring companies to provide detailed pricing data and make energy affordability a central priority, not an afterthought. For too long, energy companies have operated without meaningful scrutiny. Take the Government's approach to data centres. They consume massive amounts of electricity, drive demand and place massive strain on our grid, but who foots the bill? Ordinary workers and families. Households are paying a whopping six to eight times more in network charges than data centres and double the unit price. What did Eurostat identify as the leading factor in Ireland's extortionate energy costs? The same network charges. I will come back to the rest of it later on.

The rip-off legacy of this Government continues unabated. Last week, Eurostat reported what we already knew, namely, that Ireland has the highest electricity prices in the European Union. This is under the watch of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, sponsored by the Independents. In Ireland, we are paying nearly €500 more per year than our fellow European citizens. At the same time, many of my constituents in north Kildare face constant blackouts from a grid that is simply not fit for purpose. Ordinary workers and families are being fleeced by energy companies making eye-watering profits. What is the Government doing to address the issue? Absolutely nothing. What should we expect it to do? Its reputation as a do-nothing Government precedes it. On the other hand, Sinn Féin has offered solutions but the Government has refused to listen. The Bill before us tonight could drastically reduce the cost of electricity bills for people now and into the future. It would empower the CRU to monitor the hedging practices of these companies and sanction anti-competitive behaviour if energy companies are profiteering from a crisis. This is something the Government could do immediately. This would provide the regulator with real teeth to enforce laws that would protect households. The regulator wants these teeth but it seems the Government would rather protect data centres than households. This was most obvious in Castlebaggot in west Dublin last year when a data centre was given a connection priority over an ESB Networks substation that was meant to be connected to new houses. It is first come, first served, but we all know who Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael serve. That one data centre consumes enough energy to power 200,000 homes per year, yet they are not paying their fair share when it comes to electricity bills. The Government gives them a sweetheart deal while it shafts ordinary families and workers with the highest prices in Europe. These sky-high prices are not inevitable, as the Government continues to suggest. They are a political choice. The choice we have given the Minister tonight is a simple question: whose side is he on?

Workers and families across this State are really struggling with the weight of the highest electricity prices in Europe. We have normalised these and it is not good enough. We all spoke earlier about nurses on International Nurses Day, and they are struggling too. This energy crisis is impacting everyone across the country. Parents and carers are cutting back on essentials, workers are rationing heating and households are falling deeper into poverty, simply trying to keep the lights on and keep heat in the house. Yet, at the same time, energy companies are making eye-watering profits off the back of this crisis. The latest Eurostat figures confirm that Irish households are paying electricity prices 40% above the EU average, and people are asking why. This means that Irish families are paying, on average, €480 more per household compared with households in Europe, for a basic necessity. The Government's response has been to shrug its shoulders and pretend that nothing can be done. This is head-in-the-sand syndrome. Ireland's energy rip-off is the result of political choices made by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to protect corporate profits instead of working people and families. Tonight, Sinn Féin is saying that enough is enough. Immediate supports like electricity credits are urgently needed to support struggling households but we recognise that temporary measures alone will not solve this crisis. Unless our energy market is fundamentally reformed and our reliance on international fossil fuel markets significantly reduced, households will continue to suffer from one global conflict to the next. I thank my colleagues for bringing forward this legislation to give the energy regulator real powers to hold companies to account, to tackle price-gouging, to improve transparency and to prioritise affordability. If energy companies are not profiteering, they should have no problem proving it. Workers and their families are carrying an unfair burden while massive corporate energy users receive sweetheart deals. Households are paying double the generation costs and ten times the network costs of that of data centres. How can that be justified? I have said before in this House that deciding not to end energy rip-off is a political choice. Government could choose to impose a windfall tax on the eye-watering profits of energy companies. It could choose to introduce household energy credits but it has not. Sinn Féin has always chosen to stand with workers and families and wants to end the rip-off once and for all. The same cannot be said for Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael. Something has to be done. We cannot continue pretending that Ireland having the highest energy costs in the EU is normal. It is not normal, and it is not fair. In fact, it is grossly unfair.

Sinn Féin has brought forward legislation that speaks directly to the electricity price hikes facing ordinary workers and families across the State. This Government continues to sit on its hands and act as a spectator while people struggle to pay their bills, pensioners sit in cold homes and young families are forced to choose between heating their homes or putting food on the table. The reality on the ground is that ordinary working people are struggling. Ireland now has the highest electricity prices in the EU. Families across the State are being hammered month after month with rip-off electricity prices. Small businesses are under serious pressure. Workers are doing everything right, yet they are falling further behind because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have failed to act. People are sick and tired of excuses. They are sick and tired of hearing Ministers talk about international markets while ordinary households are pushed to breaking point. The truth is that this Government has allowed energy companies to rake in enormous profits at the expense of working people and families. Sinn Féin's legislation seeks to finally bring fairness and accountability into the energy market. It seeks to strengthen the powers of the regulator, rein in excessive electricity price hikes and ensure greater transparency from energy companies on how prices are set. It also seeks to protect consumers from being repeatedly hit with unjustified increases while energy companies continue to rake in massive profits. For too long, Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil have looked after vested interests instead of protecting ordinary people. They have been reactive instead of proactive. Every single week, I meet families who are worried about the next electricity bill arriving through the door. Parents have told me that they are skipping meals to keep the lights on. Elderly people are rationing heat all year round. This is the reality of this Government's failure. Government TDs now have a choice. They can continue to look after their friends and vested interests or they can stand with ordinary working people, young families and pensioners. I urge every TD in this House to support Sinn Féin's legislation and provide relief to those who are struggling the most.

I want to start by congratulating Councillor Ted Tynan of the Worker's Party who retired from politics in Cork City Council last night. The reason this is relevant is that Ted fought for the working classes and communities on the north side of Cork city for years. However, the one thing he always fought against was the privatisation agenda of Fiann Fáil and Fine Gael. We had many marches and protested together many times against that. The Minister might ask why that is relevant. I will tell him why. We have the highest energy costs in Europe and the Government has done nothing about it. This Government and previous Governments of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have done nothing. What they have done, however, is look after big business. They looked after the big energy companies and data centres but what about the ordinary working man and woman? What about pensioners? What about people with disabilities? Who looks after them? The Government is supposed to be looking after them. Why is it not looking after them? People were shocked when people took to the streets a few weeks ago with their anger. That is why they are angry. They are angry because the Government privatised energy companies, so they could make millions of euro while ordinary people struggle. Where is the justice in that? People tell me that they cannot afford it. Then, the Minister and Government backbenchers are saying the summer is coming. I do not know whether the Minister is living in Jamaica or wherever but it is still cold in Ireland. People still need to wash clothes, cook and clean. It all costs money. It is all energy. With the summer coming, parents are asking whether they can afford summer camps, give their children a holiday or pay for childcare. That is how desperate people are. It is the Government's job to stop us having the highest energy prices in Europe, and it is not doing it.

We are very proud in Ireland of building up electrification at a time when our country had limited resources. It is a great story of our people. That led to us having the cheapest electricity in Europe. This was infrastructure and a resource that belonged to our people. Whenever the privatisation agenda was pushed by the European Union, Ireland was at the top of the queue to privatise what was publicly-owned infrastructure. That is fundamentally the reason today our workers, families and small businesses are being crippled with electricity prices. It is the failure historically of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to protect a precious national resource we had built up. We just handed it away, and that is the price that we pay today. This is the other issue. I heard the Taoiseach talking about wind energy. For God’s sake, does he ever talk to anybody in County Donegal? We have wind farms all across Donegal and half of them remain dormant because the electricity infrastructure is not there. There is no point talking about solar and wind energy independence and reducing our prices when we are allowing these wind farms to remain dormant and are not working or functioning because we do not have the electricity infrastructure. This is failure after failure. Our people need to know the reason we have the most expensive electricity in Europe is the historic failures of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael because they are working closely with industry and huge profit-makers rather than defending the public interests of their people.

I commend colleagues on bringing this forward. The reality is that the vast majority of people around the country are finding it very difficult to meet their energy costs. We all know that. We can see it in the arrears. We can see it in the difficulty people are having when it comes to the cost of living across the board. All of this basically stems from energy. That is one of the big issues we have. This country has fallen so far behind where it could have been. I remember when Eamon Ryan was in this House talking about how we were going to be the Saudi Arabia of Europe because there was going to be so much energy produced in Ireland. We do not have the infrastructure to deliver that energy to the people in Ireland never mind export it elsewhere. What we have is a situation where the Government has totally dropped the ball with regard to energy infrastructure. Even when we look at microgeneration, a lot of people are putting solar panels on their homes now; I have put them on my home. People can get a grant. The grant was €1,800 but they cost €9,000. That is the reality for most people who are on a low incomes or even reasonably good incomes. They cannot afford to do it because the grant does not come near where it needs to be in order for people to have that possibility of being able to generate their own power. If they want to put batteries in, it is an awful lot more. We need to recognise that Government needs to step up to the mark and assist people to be able to do that and certainly people who are already paying a mortgage, a car loan and everything else. They would not be able to afford to provide the microgeneration they need to be able to because the subsidies that are in place are simply far too low and totally inadequate to be able to do it. This particular legislation to try to get the regulator to have the teeth to be able to see why we have the highest electricity prices in Europe needs to be put in place. That is why I appeal to the Minister to ensure that he supports what we are doing here and that we all work together to try to hold the energy companies to account. It is simply wrong that Ireland is paying through the nose for the mistakes of others in the past.

I am probably repeating it but surely it is long past the time that Government takes action to protect workers and families from spiralling energy costs. People tell me they are sick and tired of hearing that wholesale electricity costs are going down while their household bills are still eye-wateringly high. One of the main aims of this Sinn Féin legislation is to empower the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, to monitor wholesale and retail prices in the energy market and strengthen its powers to monitor anti-competitive behaviour of gas and electricity suppliers. Who would be opposed to that? The CRU must have a greater role in consumer protection and much stronger powers to address energy affordability. Otherwise, what is the point? Being told that the electricity prices are going up and going down without any power to effect change is meaningless and only leaves consumers feeling utterly abandoned. As we speak, hundreds of households are being disconnected each month for falling into arrears on their energy bills. There are over 300,000 households now in energy arrears. That is one in six or one in seven. We all know these people. Simply lighting and heating their homes is becoming increasing unaffordable for many families. Irish workers and families are tired of being ripped off. The cost of electricity in Ireland, as others have said, is 40% above the EU average. How is this happening? Successive Governments have steadfastly refused to take any real action to either assist people with an energy credit or tackle the root cause of what makes electricity unaffordable. All Sinn Féin wants to do is protect energy consumers from unfair pricing, price gouging, restrictive practices and anti-competitive behaviours.

I am speaking on behalf of the Government on the Bill. I thank Deputy Daly for tabling it. I will speak to the legislation and explain the rationale as to why we are opposing it, which we are doing on the basis that the CRU already holds significant existing powers to monitor, report and regulate gas and electricity suppliers. Additionally, as the Deputies will be aware, a review of the comprehensive suite of legislation underpinning the work of the CRU has already been commenced by Government. This is in line with our programme for Government commitment to prioritise a review and reform of the legislation underpinning the CRU and to emphasise that low costs for households and businesses are a central tenet in the updated mandate of the CRU. A review of the legislation underpinning the commission has been completed. The next phase of the work involves an assessment of what is adequate or in need of change, including whether a stronger mandate for the CRU is required. I believe that it is, and that will come out of this process. In light of this, any changes to CRU's mandate right now would be premature. However, I acknowledge the manner in which this has been put forward. The Government is putting in place additional measures to ensure a well-functioning energy market and to support energy affordability. Additional staffing resources have been sanctioned and have been allocated to CRU. That is to ensure that the latter can fully and effectively fulfil its remit. The forthcoming transposition of the electricity market design directive by my Department will also provide further consumer protection measures and monitoring of energy supplier hedging practices. Intensive work is under way on the preparation of the energy affordability action plan, which we discussed last week and which will examine cost drivers in the energy sector and identify measures to enhance affordability of energy for households and for businesses. Deputies will be aware that we have brought in targeted measures in what is an international crisis in order to support 470,000 households. Those measures included extending the fuel allowance to those on the working family payment scheme. This is a direct payment to households. Insofar as retrofitting is concerned, 250,000 homes have been retrofitted, bringing about permanent savings for families. We are targeting a further 73,000 this year with grant offerings that we recently changed. There is a major role to be played by solar and battery storage, but we need to expand our grid. We need to improve the resilience of our grid to enable us to take more renewables into our system. That is the purpose of the capital investment plan for the period 2026 to 2030, which includes critical pieces of infrastructure, as I am sure the Deputies opposite will be aware, such as the North-South interconnector. The latter is a critical piece of infrastructure for the island of Ireland that operates under a single electric market. That needs to commence construction on both sides of the Border. That one project will drive down electricity prices for us. Like the rest of Europe, we are unquestionably at the mercy of the vagaries of international markets. We are an island nation that imports a substantial amount of fossil fuel, but, thankfully, now we are seeing well over 40% of our electricity being generated through the use of renewables. In March, 49% of our electricity was generated through renewables. There is 8 GW of capacity of renewables within our system. Ireland is the number one country in Europe for the integration of renewables into its energy system. Price reductions take time to pass on. There are families out there who are struggling to meet energy bills. That is why any supports we bring forward need to be targeted. That is why I have also amended the grants to bring forward a retrofitting passport to break down the grants and make them more accessible, particularly to middle-income families. We have seen 29,000 applications in quarter 1 of this year - a 189% increase on the same quarter last year. That is significant. With the warmer homes scheme, which is 100% grant-aided for low-income families and those at risk of energy poverty, we have managed to retrofit 34,000 homes and are targeting 12,000 this year alone. These are very targeted measures, most of which are paid through the carbon tax which the proposing party opposed. It is the right of those opposite to oppose this, but they have never indicated how the gap will be filled. What I have outlined are real measures that would protect against further price shocks and crises, but what is really within our grasp is that acceleration of the delivery of additional renewables into our system, including more onshore wind and solar. In only 11 years, we have gone from 2 MW of solar integrated into our grid to 2,553 MW being integrated into it as of last month. The acceleration of delivery is happening. There is still, however, the issue of our reliance on gas, particularly imported gas. Approximately 20% of the gas that we use comes from the Corrib field. The remainder is imported. Unquestionably, there are costs associated with that. What drives me is ensuring that we get energy prices down for households and businesses. That is why business support grants are important, particularly to enable businesses to retrofit but also to switch to renewable forms of energy. On offshore renewables, Deputies opposite will be aware that the five east-coast schemes still remain in planning. From my engagement with the offshore renewable electricity support scheme, ORESS, 1 developers, I can tell the House that we expect at least two of those to come through planning toward the end of this year. That will mean that we will be able to commence construction by 2030. The original plan was that they would be electrified and that 5 GW of offshore renewables would be integrated into our system by 2030. That will not happen. I have been very honest with people. What we need to see is construction of that offshore wind resource, and to scale that up. Whilst our target is 80% renewables by 2030, our projections are between 68% and 72% by the end of the decade, but we can bridge the gap. Battery storage is critical, particularly long-duration storage. Only yesterday, Euronews highlighted a Eurostat report which shows that is in the top four countries within the European Union for long-duration battery storage within our system, and that has expanded greatly. That is important because Deputies, both in government and across the House, look at curtailment of renewable energy resources of sometimes up to 16%. The more battery storage we have within our system, the more we can deploy that energy at the appropriate time. We are seeing now approximately 1.2 GW of battery storage connected within our grid. We are also seeing a rooftop revolution when it comes to solar panels on houses. People are accessing the grants that Deputy Kenny mentioned at an accelerated rate. Savings of approximately €1,500 per year can be obtained by households that install solar photovoltaic panels on their roofs. I would like to see more of that being done by businesses. I appreciate that the Bill has been tabled and that Deputy Daly and colleagues went to some effort to produce it. The measures it contains are being looked at right now. It would be premature to accept the Bill at this time because the review to which I referred earlier has been concluded. The next phase is to look at the recommendations within that and to make the relevant changes, should they be needed, to the CRU, which already has a substantial mandate overseeing retail energy costs within our system. Furthermore, as the Deputies will be aware, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, also monitors energy prices. It has an important role in that regard. Recently, the CRU produced a report, with input from CCPC, and found that competition in the Irish electricity and gas markets is functioning effectively and is generating meaningful rivalry. The point I am making is that we have to make it easier for people to switch providers - not enough people do so - and there are major savings to be made by households and businesses that switch electricity providers. There is an issue when it comes to enabling the senior cohort of our population to access switching of energy providers in as appropriate a way as possible. Our focus is absolutely on delivering affordability. Much more work needs to be done on that. In the budget, we reduced the VAT on electricity and gas to 9% permanently out to 2030. In July we will have the final report of the energy affordability task force, looking at things like network charges and what we can do in the round on that to drive permanent savings on household and business bills. Fundamentally, within all of this is reducing our dependence on fossil fuel. It is creating more domestic energy generation through renewable sources and the projections for that are very positive.

While energy giants protect massive profits, ordinary people are sitting at kitchen tables terrified to open another bill. Sinn Féin has repeatedly warned about profiteering, weak oversight and consumers being left completely exposed, all while 23% of our electricity goes to feed data centres in circumstances where the EU average in that regard is just 2%. The State will continue to lurch from one crisis to the next unless action is taken to reform how we approach our energy. The CRU must given expanded powers to allow it to monitor wholesale and retail pricing, investigate anti-competitiveness, oversee hedging practice and examine affordability. We need to end the wall of complexity and secrecy because consumers are expected to continually suck up price hikes. In one of the wealthiest countries in Europe, no family should have to choose between heating their homes and feeding their children. This situation was created by years of weak regulation, market failure and political choices that prioritised energy companies over ordinary citizens. Across Ireland today, there are parents skipping meals in order that electricity meters stay running. Pensioners are sitting in the cold afraid to turn on their heaters. Workers are falling deeper into debt despite doing everything that is asked of them. The Minister said that this Bill is premature. In that context, how many people must be in energy debt before Government finally acts? We continue to have electricity prices among the highest in Europe. That is neither normal nor acceptable. Sinn Féin will never accept a system where energy companies thrive while families struggle to survive. We need stronger consumer protection, real accountability and long-term investment in affordable public energy infrastructure. Above all, we need a Government that is willing to stand with ordinary people instead of standing back while prices spiral out of control.

Irish householders pay 40% more for electricity than the EU average, which comes to €480 more per year. On average, households owe €500 to their energy suppliers. The vast majority of them simply do not have that. Over 320,000 households are in arrears on their electricity bills and 180,000 are in arrears on their gas bills. This is scandalous. Irish people, when they can, always pay their bills. These figures demonstrate the scale of the rip-off that our Irish householders face. While Irish workers and families struggle in an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, energy companies are making obscene profits. Surely if the Government were concerned about the well-being of its citizens, it would step up and hold these energy companies to account. Instead, we get inaction and a hands-off approach, with citizens abandoned by the do-nothing Government across the Chamber from us. The Government is committed to the corporate bottom line as opposed to the well-being of its citizens. That is, unless there is general election in the offing. When that happens, course, energy credits are available. However, once the election ends, those supports conveniently disappear like snow off a ditch. Since the onset of war in Ukraine, we have warned that the regulator requires more power to get this escalation of prices under control. However, the Government has sat on this legislation for three years. It is an outrageous situation when we consider that Irish households pay ten times the network cost of data centres. In this State, 23% of electricity goes to data centres. That compares with an average of 2% across the EU. However, one Government policy after another has supported data centres rather than Irish households. This Bill offers an opportunity to hold these energy companies to account. It offers transparency through regulator reporting responsibilities. However, our do-nothing Government seems more than content to allow Irish householders pay more than their European counterparts. It seems determined to not rein in these companies. Irish consumers and families suffer, yet data centres and energy companies benefit from the Government inaction and a failure to hold them to account. With no election on the horizon, citizens are suffering through a cost-of-living in crisis while the Government sits back and watches.

Another week and another Private Members' Bill to try to address the real issue that is adversely affecting the Irish people, and yet another seemingly disinterested and dismissive amendment from this do-nothing Government. What is beyond laughable is that it will ignore this issue and continue to inflict the highest energy bills in Europe on the Irish people. Then, come election time, the Government will suddenly be interested and most earnest and will introduce one-off or short-term measures to reduce people's gas and electricity bills and actually help them where it counts, namely in their pockets. That is one of the ideas in its playbook. Like all of its ideas, it has been worn out. It is too little too late. Let us get real. The energy bills the Irish people have to pay for are not fair. They are the highest in Europe. Joe and Mary Public have to pay twice the rate that multibillionaire data centre companies have to pay. Energy company profits are through the roof and yet the Government refuses to introduce a windfall tax. Profiteering and price gouging must not continue to go unchecked, and energy companies must be held to account. Just like in the aftermath of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the conflict in the Middle East has been exploited by corporate interests. Energy companies are laughing as they go off into the sunset with sky-high profits. Meanwhile, ordinary households are being fleeced. We in Sinn Féin have repeatedly warned the Government that the regulator must be given the powers to get this under control. However, Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have sat on this legislation for over three years, demonstrating once again that their priority is always the corporate bottom line over ordinary people. Sinn Féin's legislation would enhance the power of the energy regulator to hold energy companies to account, to tackle price gouging and to prioritise energy affordability. Until that is done, people will continue to fall into arrears in their electricity bills in the midst of this cost-of-living crisis. Half-measures will not make a difference and this has been proven. The Irish people are sick to the back teeth of being ripped off. They expect action from this Government but all they get is complacency. They expect accountability and all they get is deflection. They expect support and sadly all they are getting is shafted. That is the level of delivery to the Irish people from this Government and it is utterly shameful.

Since the 1920s, the ESB has been at the core of secure electricity generation across the entire State. It did that to great effect, getting power lines out to the most rural communities. The ESB, as a State-owned body, worked to deliver electricity not as commodity for profit but as a resource for the Irish public. Because it operated in the national interest as oppose to in the interests of lining the pockets of stakeholders and investors, the ESB was able to do all of that while providing affordable electricity and great working conditions for its staff. As a result of Fianna Fáil's and Fine Gael's blind commitment to EU policies that are not always in the national interest, there was a push to open up our energy sector to private ventures. They tried to fool the public into believing that liberalising the market would bring more choice and reduce prices. Instead, in the early 2000s the Irish Government drove up prices for ESB customers by nearly 70%, for one reason only: to force customers to leave the ESB and to make the market more profitable for private energy companies. Just as the private market has failed the Irish public in the supply of affordable housing, so too has it failed in the supply of affordable energy. However, the private market has ensured record prices for investors and stakeholders at the expense of the Irish public. For Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, the interests of ordinary people have always come second to the interest of capital and profits for private companies.

This do-nothing Government has stood back and watched while fuel and energy prices have spiralled out of control. Families, workers, carers, pensioners and people with disabilities are being squeezed from every angle while this Government refuses to act. People cannot afford to wait until the next budget to find out whether they will once again be left worse off like workers were in this year's budget or forgotten about entirely like so many people with disabilities feel today. A record number of households cannot pay their energy bills. Carers cannot afford to fill their cars to get to work to care for people. -Parents are lying awake at night wondering how they will pay the rent, buy the groceries, cover insurance, fuel their cars and keep the heating on. People with disabilities are not able to charge their vital equipment. What has this Government done about this? Very little. The Minister may pat himself on the back and point to extra fuel allowance payments, but I ask him to speak to those people receiving them and ask them if it is enough. The answer from the people I speak to is clear: it is not enough. The Minister should ask workers and families if they can afford to heat their homes, ask them if they are getting into debt to survive, ask elderly people if they are afraid to switch on the heating and ask parents if they are skipping meals so their children can eat. This is the reality of the Government's failure. What is needed now is action. Sinn Féin has put forward solutions. The Sinn Féin mineral oil tax Bill must be enacted and the planned carbon tax increases must be scrapped. People need relief now, not more excuses or delays, and not more spin. We need the Government to stand with ordinary people. We need elderly and vulnerable people to be able to heat their homes without fear and those with disabilities to able to heat and eat as opposed to having to choose one or the other. We also need to see carers, workers and families able to afford a decent standard of living. The Government should show it is willing to support those who are struggling. It should stop the fact that Ireland has the highest cost of energy and bring it back down to an affordable cost.

I thank Deputy Daly and Sinn Féin for bringing forward this legislation. I am disappointed that the Government will not be supporting it. The Labour Party and I have long called for enhanced powers for the CRU. Indeed, I have my own electricity regulation Bill, which seeks to give the CRU the ability to issue specific emissions reduction or offsetting obligations on large energy users, like data centres. I hope we get the opportunity to debate that Bill on Second Stage in the House in the not-too-distant future. I am broadly supportive of Deputy Daly’s Bill. There are elements that I think could use some strengthening, which I will come to, but on the whole, it is a noble endeavour. We are discussing this in the midst of what the head of the International Energy Agency has described as the worst ever energy crisis. However, the sense of dread with which people open their energy bills long proceeds Trump and Netanyahu’s illegal war in Iran. Low-income households, small businesses and pensioners are the cohorts that have been put to the pin of their collar for years now. Virtually everyone is being touched in some way by this fossil fuel crisis. While the Government has produced a €750 million package, however necessary it was, it was designed to placate sectoral interests. It has done next to nothing for ordinary PAYE workers, certainly not those who take public transport, cycle or walk every day. The Government has resisted every effort from the Labour Party, including the costed mini-budget that we proposed last week, to give workers a dig-out during this perpetual cost-of-living crisis. This Bill seeks to amend the 1999 Act in several important ways, which have already been outlined by Deputy Daly and others. The governance and mechanisms of the energy markets are convoluted and complex, to say the least. We cannot expect the average consumer to know the ins and outs. That is hard enough for those of us in here, whose job it is to understand it. In that respect, greater transparency in energy pricing is necessary and good. Stronger consumer protection is necessary. Better scrutiny of suppliers is necessary. Affordability must be recognised as a core public policy objective, not just an afterthought. The provisions in this Bill would set us in the right direction. I suggest that we could perhaps go even further. I am on record on a number of occasions as not just calling for greater regulation in the energy markets but also for greater intervention and a crackdown on some of the profiteering we have seen on the part of the energy companies. The Irish energy system is dominated by a relatively small number of large actors. The liberalisation of our energy markets in the early 2010s was supposed to bring about lower prices through greater competition. That clearly has not happened. Instead, we have repeatedly seen cartel-like behaviour from the companies operating here. When international energy prices rise, bills fly up immediately. When wholesale prices fall, however, consumers wait months or even longer to see any meaningful reduction in the prices they pay. This fundamentally undermines public trust in the energy markets. People know they are being ripped off. This Bill proposes enhanced monitoring of wholesale and retail prices, including average supplier margins and changes in prices paid by domestic and business consumers. That is a welcome proposal. Transparency matters. The public deserves to know not just what prices are being charged, but why they are paying them. There has virtually always been insufficient visibility with regard to supplier margins and the relationship between wholesale costs and retail prices. Consumers have basically been asked to accept on trust that price increases are unavoidable and proportionate. That is not good enough, particularly in the current context of market volatility. If a supplier claims that international gas prices necessitate major increases, then the CRU should have the capacity - indeed, the obligation - to rigorously scrutinise that claim. We know there is an active investigation being carried out at present by the CRU into price gouging and the failure of energy suppliers to pass on wholesale price reductions to consumers. The wholesale cost is down 72% from its peak in August 2022, but the prices being paid by consumers remain stubbornly high. It has been more than five months since that investigation was commissioned by the Minister, and we are still to get any update from the CRU on the progress of that investigation. That says to me there is something seriously lacking in terms of the CRU’s capacity to investigate matters such as these. Crucially, we must also see statutory powers for intervention where unjustified pricing practices are identified. Transparency cannot become a substitute for action or accountability. lf that investigation eventually finds that there has been price gouging, what then? It cannot just be another report to add to the pile, and let that be the end of the matter. The Bill also addresses hedging. This is one of those technical issues that is probably quite remote from the concerns of ordinary consumers, but it is really important because different hedging strategies directly affect the prices people pay. In theory, hedging allows suppliers to protect themselves and, potentially, consumers from market volatility by purchasing in advance at agreed prices. Done responsibly, it can provide stability and predictability. However, we have seen the lack of transparency in this process create legitimate public concern. Consumers have repeatedly been told during periods of falling wholesale prices that suppliers remain tied into earlier purchasing arrangements and, therefore, cannot yet reduce bills. However, as we know from very recent examples, energy and fuel suppliers are very quick to hike their prices during periods of wholesale price increases, despite having purchased their supply weeks or months prior. Consumers cannot hedge their bills or protect themselves against sudden price spikes. Therefore, stronger oversight of hedging practices, including investigative practices and powers for the CRU, would be very welcome. We need to ensure that what people are paying reflects what it costs the supplier. The provisions in the Bill regarding anti-competitive behaviour are welcome. This goes back to my earlier point about the state of competition between actors in the Irish energy market, which is highly concentrated. Consumers do not experience this market as competitive in the everyday sense of the word. Most providers offer more or less the same high prices with minimal variation, and all too often, a price hike by one precipitates a price hike by the rest. We saw this last year, when more or less all of the energy companies raised their prices well above the rate of inflation. Barriers to switching between providers have increasingly become an issue, particularly for more vulnerable households, like older people, people with disabilities and those with limited digital literacy or access. That reality needs to be recognised. It is not enough to tell people that the burden is on them to switch. We need to have real competition in the market. If a market is technically competitive but practically inaccessible, then many consumers remain unprotected. Energy should not be viewed simply as a commodity. It is an essential public good. Electricity is not a luxury. Heating is not optional. When people cannot heat their homes, we see the consequences, be it in public health, child poverty, educational outcomes or mental well-being. I have dealt with people in my constituency who have gotten sick because they have not been able to heat their homes, and people who have skipped meals in order to pay their bills. These are not exceptional cases. They are the far too common reality of so many people in this country at present. I welcome the consumer protection elements that are included in this Bill, and welcome that the interests of the consumer and protection against unfair pricing would be central considerations, but we also need to clarify what that looks like in practice. Does it mean clearer information on bills? I certainly hope so. Does it mean stronger enforcement powers? Absolutely. However, it surely must also mean preventing energy poverty before it actually occurs. Fundamentally, that means wider structural reforms in our energy system. As I have said on numerous occasions, the only way we can genuinely protect consumers from future fossil fuel crises is by reducing our dependence on those fossil fuels in the first place. I will continue to bang the drum on this for as long as I need to because the Government has been moving at a snail’s pace. We need to see a much greater level of ambition in our home retrofitting programmes. We need to see low and middle-income households targeted in particular. We need to rapidly scale up public investment in offshore wind, solar, plug-in solar and battery storage. We need to accelerate grid modernisation while ensuring that the large energy users, like data centres, pay their fair share. At present, the bulk of the funding for grid improvements comes from ordinary households and small business consumers through their energy bills. Meanwhile, data centres are getting a discount. Working people are being asked to bear disproportionate costs in order that large corporations can continue to make massive profits. In order to make the energy transition a reality, we need to improve and modernise the national grid, but we cannot make this a choice between climate action and affordability. The two can and must be pursued together. One of the great failures of recent years has been the inability of successive Governments to communicate that renewable energy, energy efficiency and public investment can reduce household costs. Instead, many now associate climate action with an additional expense because the big polluters and the large energy users have not been paying their fair share and properly contributing towards a just energy transition. lf our transition towards a cleaner economy and society is perceived as something imposed on ordinary workers while wealthier actors remain insulated, public support will fracture. Perhaps that is already happening. Affordability must be central to our energy policy and our energy transition. A functioning energy system must be measured in terms of whether people can actually afford to heat and power their homes. In a country as wealthy as ours on paper, it is just unacceptable that for so many that isn’t the case. We in Labour acknowledge that our energy challenges do not exist in isolation. The volatility experienced in recent years obviously reflects broader geopolitical instability, but external factors cannot excuse the local inertia we have seen from the Government. Countries with stronger public infrastructure, greater energy independence and more developed renewable generation capacity have been able to weather this storm far more effectively. Look at Spain. Following the fuel crisis that arose as a result of Putin’s illegal war on Ukraine, they turbo-charged their solar energy capacity and have been largely protected against this current crisis. They are paying some of the lowest prices in Europe now. While Spain took that fossil fuel crisis as a wake up call, our Government hit the snooze button. We remain overly dependent on imported fossil fuels. We remain vulnerable to international price shocks. Despite our enormous potential in offshore wind generation, we still have not added a single additional turbine in more than 20 years, and the Minister has told us again tonight that we will not see anything in construction until 2030 at the earliest. The only urgency that we have seen from the Government with regards to our energy system is in its attempt to import even more fossil fuels via a new liquefied natural gas, LNG, terminal. I sincerely hope that this Government takes the right lessons from this crisis, the ones that it did not take from the crisis in 2022. I will conclude by again commending Deputy Daly on his Bill. It poses an important question to the Government about what kind of energy system we want in Ireland - one in which energy is treated as a commodity subject entirely to commercial logic, or one in which it is treated as a public utility and social good. My Labour Party colleagues and I certainly favour the latter and we will be supporting this Bill.

I thank Sinn Féin for introducing this Bill. The Social Democrats will be supporting it. Transparency in our energy pricing sector is long overdue. This Bill ensures that. It also strengthens the mandate of the CRU to actively intervene in the energy market in the name of the public interest. It places energy affordability at the heart of energy regulation. This is all very welcome. For too long, Irish households have been asked to accept price increases and to trust that those increases are justified and fair without concrete evidence that this is true. This debate goes to the heart of that problem. It is about transparency and restoring public trust in our energy sector by enhancing the CRU's reporting obligations and requiring regular published data on retail prices, supplier margins and price changes. That is an important and necessary change. Last month, I raised the CRU's price gouging investigation with the Minister of State, Deputy Dooley. I asked him for an update on the CRU price gouging investigation that the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, had called for at the end of 2025. Yesterday, the CRU finally published its interim review. When I spoke to the Minister of State in mid-April, he had no update on what the CRU had actually done or where the CRU was at with its investigation. I find it surprising that the Minister of State did not know that the publication was just weeks away. There is a clear disconnect between the Government and the regulator. This is a concerning thing. The CRU's interim review concludes that it has found no evidence of excess profitability or price gouging by suppliers. For me, that raises more questions than it answers. The CRU will appear before the climate committee tomorrow to go through the review. This is only an interim review and it is not the full investigation. The CRU states that more detailed analysis is to come. In this interim review, the CRU does not dispute that wholesale prices have fallen dramatically since 2022, that the International Energy Agency, IEA, states that those reductions were not passed on to households and that the Eurostat data states that Ireland has the highest household electricity prices in the EU. This is all still true. Yet, according to the CRU, there is nothing to see here. The market is functioning as it should. There is nothing to worry about. I just do not understand how that makes any sense. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, said earlier on that he believed there needed to be a strengthening of the mandate of the CRU. I would question exactly why he believes that the mandate should be strengthened. If the mandate of the CRU needs to be strengthened, that would imply that any investigations into things like price gouging are potentially not up to scratch or the CRU does not have enough teeth or remit to deal with them. I would be interested to hear from the Minister on exactly what additional powers he would like the CRU to have. People all over this country are being crushed by incredibly high electricity prices that are just going up and up. Over 317,000 households are now in arrears. These are people who work hard, who do all the right things, who get up every morning and go to work, but they simply cannot keep their heads above water. All the while, wholesale electricity prices are 72% lower than they were at their peak in August 2022, yet retail prices continue to rise. If that is a well-functioning market, it is a market that is failing consumers. For many people across the country, this energy crisis is getting worse by the day. Hundreds of thousands of people are in arrears on their electricity bills. Families are being forced to make impossible choices every day between paying their bills and covering basic daily essentials. The cost-of-living increases from 2025 alone have led to an average Irish home paying €480 more per year than households in neighbouring countries. When the Government is challenged on that point, it points to the national energy affordability task force that was established last year. It keeps on saying that solutions will come later in the year, but people are struggling now. They need help now and they have needed help for months. That answer is completely unacceptable. This task force, even with the fact that it will only be reporting fully at the end of the year, has only met on three occasions between its establishment in June 2025 and February 2026. Three meetings while electricity prices climbed and climbed and more families fell into debt. That response is not reflective of the scale of this crisis. It appears to me that the Government is not taking this seriously at all. Irish households have been struggling with skyrocketing energy costs for years. It did not begin in February with the USA and Israeli war on Iran. It has been going on for years. Last week, we learned in the Irish Independent that Irish households were now €2,000 a year worse off due to rising energy, grocery and health insurance costs combined. Energy is not an isolated expense, but part of the wider cost-of-living crisis that is squeezing people to breaking point. When the Minister of State and this Government tell people to wait, that relief is coming and that assistance is on the way, he can understand why people do not believe them and why their trust in this Government is eroding. EU state aid rules have been relaxed in the context of the current energy and oil crisis. Targeted price interventions have been permitted by the Commission. The Government has options, options that make this inaction inexcusable. In the face of this cost-of-living crisis, the Social Democrats have proposed a targeted €400 energy credit for households with low-to-middle incomes. That is a practical and deliverable measure. It would offer direct relief to those most under pressure. However, short-term financial support is simply not enough. We also need structural change. We need to accelerate our transition to green energy and start future-proofing homes against future price shocks. The Social Democrats have a plan for that as well. Our solar for all proposal is a five-point plan that would expand and improve access to solar nationwide. It includes doubling the existing solar grant, reinstating the grant for battery storage, including free solar panels as part of the warmer homes scheme and increasing grants for businesses to install solar. Crucially, our plan also addresses the need to roll out new technology like plug-in solar. These are practical proposals that would cut bills, reduce emissions and insulate households from future shocks. Energy security is about more than just affordability. Energy security is national resilience. Transparency needs to lie at the heart of everything we do. Without it, public trust will be lost, if it is not already. Irish people are being asked to pay the highest electricity prices in Europe while being told everything is working as it should, that prices are fair and everything is fine. This simply does not add up.

I welcome this Bill. I support it and thank Sinn Féin for introducing it. The Bill gives the Commission for Regulation of Utilities the power to monitor wholesale and retail prices in the energy market; to increase the frequency and level of reporting; to monitor and regulate hedging practices; to strengthen its powers to monitor anti-competitive behaviour of gas and electricity suppliers; to give an expanded role in consumer protection; and to strengthen its powers to address energy affordability. The Bill is definitely going in the right direction but we must go further and more must be done. The Bill raises the whole issue of Ireland's soaring energy costs, which are the highest in Europe. Households in Ireland are now paying €480 more in electricity that in other countries, with overall energy costs costing households an additional €2,000 a year each. Families are being fleeced and energy companies are taking advantage of the illegal US war on Iran to make families pay through the nose while making huge, unearned war profits. Statistics on profits are horrendous. The oil companies are making $30 million per hour in unearned war profits. In March alone, these companies made an extra $23 billion in unearned war profits. It means they will have an additional $234 billion in unearned war profits in 2026. These profits are coming straight out of the pockets of the public who are paying higher prices. These are windfall, unearned war profits. They must be subject to a significant windfall tax. That tax can be used to offset the huge cost to ordinary workers and families. This whole area is flooding into the most horrendous cost-of-living crisis we have ever seen. The Government's withdrawal of energy credits in the 2026 budget and its refusal now to reintroduce energy credits means that record numbers of households are in arrears. In fact, approximately 500,000 families are in arrears on their gas and electricity bills. Some 317,000 families were in arrears on their electricity bills in February. This is an increase of 58,500 compared to the same month last year, a rise of 23%. Furthermore, 191,000 families are in arrears for over 90 days, up 36,000 or an increase of 23% on the same time last year. The level of debt has also reached new heights. The average amount now owed by families is €492.72, an increase of €64.94 on last year. Families now owe electricity suppliers €156 million. On gas, 179,500 families are in arrears on gas bills, up 8,000 on the same period last year. In fact, a quarter of all gas customers are in arrears. It is now a question of heat or eat for these families. Many families are at or beyond breaking point. The level of disconnections indicates that is the case, as they are up 64% on the same time last year. That is an outrage, and it outrageous that the Government refuses to introduce energy credits in this situation. Do not tell us that these credits are unsustainable or that the Government does not have the money or needs to be prudent. We know - and if the Minister of State read the Sunday Business Post on 3 May, he would know - that the Government has €39 billion in State cash reserves held by the National Treasury Management Agency. They are liquid assets. Two weeks ago, the Government announced an increased budget surplus for 2026, up from €5 billion to €9.2 billion. There was a budget surplus in 2023 and 2024 of €30.9 billion and there are rainy day funds, the Future Ireland Fund and infrastructure funds of another €20 billion. The truth is that the Government is awash with money. Before the 2024 general election, the Government found €2.2 billion for a package straight from the back of a couch to help it win and buy that election. It is time to now reintroduce credits. Families are at breaking point. They are at the pin of their collar and they need energy credits now of at least €500 each.

I thank Sinn Féin for introducing this Bill on electricity regulation. People Before Profit is happy to support this, which is a serious attempt to address the issue of the energy price hikes and the energy poverty that has resulted from those as well as the price gouging and profiteering of energy companies. The idea that there would be a body in legislation that would monitor price gouging and price levels is an admirable one and we are happy support it and see it go to the next Stage. I have to be honest, though, and say that we need to go a lot further than this. There is immediate stuff, which I am sure Sinn Féin would agree with and that others have articulated, about energy credits and the cuts that were imposed in the budget this year, but this Bill is obviously an attempt to deal more structurally with the whole issue of price hikes, profiteering and price gouging. It would be good to monitor pricing, and we need to monitor it, and this Bill has provisions on protection against unfair pricing and so on, but it is still predicated on a privatised and deregulated market. I believe the problem is the privatised, deregulated market. If we look at electricity, what has happened is absolutely clear. I said this to Professor John FitzGerald today in our committee and, surprisingly, he agreed with me. I will be careful to say he agreed with me "to some degree". I find it grimly amusing to go back to 2011 when Eamon Ryan fully and finally deregulated the Irish electricity market and read what he said. He said that competition was going to be good for the consumer, that we were going to have competition in the market and that prices were going to go down. He said the consumer was going to benefit. This process had started under Fianna Fáil. I think Mary O'Rourke was the Minister back in 2001, and then Noel Dempsey. The Electricity (Supply) (Amendment) Act 2001 removed the not-for-profit mandate of the ESB. Eamon Ryan finally removed all regulations on price in 2011. It was all based on private competition and how deregulating the market would benefit the consumer because competition leads to prices going down. However, the exact opposite happened. All the market claptrap and dogma did not lead to prices going down and did not benefit the consumer. The prices went up almost immediately. Profits for the ESB and all the other energy players went through the roof and have consistently continued to go through the roof since then, as have prices for ordinary householders. We went from being under a regulated market that was not for profit, where the ESB controlled the market and we had the lowest electricity prices in Europe, to being deregulated, privatised and with the highest electricity prices in Europe. That is what happened. It is obvious when you look at the profits being made that that is the problem. We need to take that sector back into public control, not because it is a good idea coming from the lefties but because it worked. We had it before and it worked, and we should not have fixed what was not broken. We had good electricity prices. The ESB was a fantastic company. Then, a market dogma and claptrap were introduced and we have paid a bitter price for it. Half a million ordinary people, as a result, are in arrears on electricity and gas. That is where it ends, with super profits for the energy companies. Let us go back to what we used to have, which was a company that had a not-for-profit mandate and where there was not massive profiteering. I also believe we just need to introduce energy price controls. We have them. We do not even need new legislation for this. Fianna Fáil, for all the criticism I have of it, brought in legislation, the Consumer Protection Act, which actually empowers the Government to impose price controls when there is an emergency. Why on earth did Fianna Fáil bring it in? It did so presumably because it thought we might need it some time, but it has never used it and it refuses to use it, even though this is the definition of an emergency in terms of the cost of energy. There is a war going on and prices have gone through the roof and people cannot people pay their bills because of it, and there are the price hikes that have made energy unaffordable. Why on earth do we have something on the Statute Book that was designed for exactly that situation but we refuse to use it? We should impose the price controls that that consumer protection legislation empowers the Government to use. The Government will not do it because it seems to think it is okay that people are profiteering off the cost-of-living misery that ordinary people are suffering, or maybe it is a commitment to market dogma, or both, but it has failed us.

As others have said, people are fed up, exhausted and worn down by the current energy crisis. Some of those already challenged to make ends meet - those with disabilities, for example, or those on very low incomes - are now living hand to mouth and cutting back on food just to keep a bit of heat and light, and that is before the darker winter months crawl back in again. We have also found out that small businesses are hanging on. I have spoken to quite a few in my constituency. We see that prices always shoot up in an incident, but when wholesale prices drop or a Government initiative provides a belated relief, we do not see the same movement downwards. It is all about the hedging and the margins, but a lot of it is basically "Wizard of Oz" stuff and no one can see what is going on behind the curtain. That is why I welcome the Electricity Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2026. In the same theme as "The Wizard of Oz", it is not a magic wand to reduce prices but it might just lead to fairer pricing and help people make better decisions because of the suggestions like the monthly publication of the supplier margins, the oversight of the hedging, the quarterly reports showing how quickly the retail prices are tracking the wholesale costs and giving more and stronger powers to the CRU to investigate any kind of anti-competitive behaviour. To be clear, there are real reasons prices stay up. Ireland's wholesale prices are still higher in general. Network and grid charges are higher, and that is before we put the investment into upgrading the grid so we can actually be supplied wholly by homegrown energy and be a net exporter. That is a long way down the road but we should be starting now. Hedging, to an extent, does delay price reductions, and our dependence on oil and gas for electricity and for other forms of energy makes us very vulnerable. The Bill is restricted in what it can do. The CRU cannot override EU law. The Government might say EU law is already in place so we do not need this, but it cannot get better than EU law and it cannot set direct pricing either, and it does not tackle the root cause of our dependence on imported fossil fuels. To be clear, however, it is an improvement on what is there already. Every piece of relevant information can only push the system a little closer to fairness for people. Let us remember that we are paying among the highest, if not the highest, electricity prices in Europe, but we are probably the ones that get the lowest amount of information as to why. A little bit of transparency would not go amiss, and I cannot see why this Bill would be opposed by the Government. Even if there are measures that its advice says cannot be implemented, the Bill can be amended and made better. In that context, more transparency is a good idea.

In recent years, energy suppliers operating in Ireland recorded profits running into hundreds of millions of euro, even as households struggled with some of the highest electricity prices in Europe. That reality is why stronger transparency, oversight and consumer protection are not only justified, but necessary. This pressure has been felt most sharply in rural Ireland. When people in rural areas do not have access to cash, they have no alternative. They rely on electricity, oil and solid fuel, often in older homes that are expensive to heat. When prices go up, they have nowhere to turn and fuel poverty sets in quickly. I saw that clearly myself time and again while canvassing in Galway last weekend. On doorsteps in rural areas, people raised energy costs as one of their main concerns: pensioners, working families and small business owners all said the same thing. They feel squeezed, they feel forgotten and they are worried about how they will manage the next winter. While people are struggling like that, profits are being made. The ESB recorded profits of €868 million in 2023 and €706 million in 2024. Bord Gáis Energy made €72.5 million in profit in 2025. SSE's Irish operations reported profits of over €50 million. These are huge figures when set against the reality being faced by households across the country. We also know what actually provided relief before the last election: energy credits were issued. I did say "before the last election". I heard again on the doors of Galway how important these credits were to people, who remember them because they made a real a difference. They reduced fear and bought people breathing space. Energy prices remain high. Fuel poverty has not disappeared. That is why I make a direct appeal to the Minister of State: those energy credits need to be reintroduced, not as a political gesture, but as a necessary support for our households, particularly in rural Ireland. This Bill is a step in the right direction. It pushes transparency and accountability, but legislation alone will not keep homes warm. People need practical help and they need it now. Energy is an essential service. No one should be forced to choose between heating and eating. That is why stronger regulations, real affordability measures and the return of energy credits are not optional but essential. We are, unfortunately, not energy independent. We should be. We are laggards. That is what the powers in Europe think Ireland is: laggards in relation to renewables. People out there are trying to put solar on their houses and on the roofs of their sheds. The pittance grants they are getting are shocking compared with those in other countries in Europe and in the UK. They are getting treble in Scotland what we get in Ireland. We are not moving in any direction. All the Government wants to do is tax the people as hard as it can - carbon, the National Oil Reserves Agency, NORA, levy, VAT, the whole lot down the hard-working man and woman's back. The people know it and they are angered out there about this because the Government has neglected the good hard-working people of this country.

I thank my colleagues in Sinn Féin for introducing this Bill. It is a very good Bill and works quite well. I was kind of shocked when I was reading it because I wondered should this not have been done a long time ago by previous Governments. I welcome it in that sense. The cliché every Member in this House is using is the phrase "heating or eating", but that is the truth. That is what is happening in Cork, Dublin, Donegal, Galway, Kilkenny - anywhere in the country. People are choosing between heating and eating. Recently, I visited a gentleman's house where they had one bar on the fire and were wrapped in blankets. He is afraid to turn on the heating in his house. In my constituency, there are many families leaving their kids in bed late on the Saturday and on the Sunday to ensure that they do not have to turn on the heating in the house because that is how difficult it is for them. I know the Minister of State is scrolling through his phone. I am sure he is very busy there, but the other thing is that-----

I am listening to the Deputy. I am not just-----

Well, I would like the Minister of State to listen to me and pay attention, if that is okay.

I am sorry, but Chair?

I am only asking for a small bit of respect-----

I have heard everything the Deputy has said.

-----and for the Minister of State to have a small bit of respect for the Leas-Cheann Comhairle as well.

I have heard everything the Deputy has said and I will reply to him.

I thank the Minister of State. He will reply-----

I will. Do not worry.

-----and he will have his opportunity to do so. Fine. The reality is that there are people in this country who have never been worse off. The Government goes out and says every day of the week that it is doing fantastic and asks people to give it a clap on the back because it has this deficit and that deficit. You cannot eat a deficit. There are people now choosing between turning on their heating and eating and the Government is not listening to them. More than 300,000 people in this country are in arrears with their ESB and gas bills. There is something wrong with that. There is something fundamentally wrong when people are in significant arrears in a First World country. The Government does not seem to be listening and does not seem to understand. I do not know if Government Members are knocking on the same doors as we are in Galway and Dublin but, at the doors we are knocking on, people are telling us straight out that they cannot take any more, that they are sick to death of it, that this is the final cut and that they cannot keep on going. I appeal to the Minister of State and to his Government. My colleague has just spoken about the renewable energy schemes that are available, which the Government continuously says are fantastic and marvellous. The truth is that you would want a ball of money under the bed to avail of these schemes. Some of these measures cost €16,000 but you only get €2,000 back. It is ridiculous. It does not make sense.

I will be supporting this Bill. No one has mentioned the elephant in the room. This Government signed off on allowing networks to charge up to €120 per megawatt hour. It costs €50 per megawatt hour to produce electricity but the networks are allowed to charge up to €120. People in some areas have gas and alternatives. They can swap between different groups to get cheaper rates. In rural areas, we are lucky to have ESB at times. People in rural areas only have one choice. If something is not broken, they will not fix it. They will not swap between different networks because they do not have the opportunity to do so. The Government brought out so-called targeted funding but it is taking it back through VAT increases. It is giving with one hand and taking back with the other. The Government then came out with a solar panel scheme. I am all for solar panels but the Government brought out a grant that only allows you to put up to 6 kW of solar panels on your roof. Even if a roof could take up to 20 kW, the Government says people can only put up 6 kW. Why is that? It is because the infrastructure is not there to take the power fluctuations. The Government does not want you to be able to power your own house for free and send back electricity to the grid because the infrastructure is not there. The Government limited the number of solar panels and the amount of grants that would allow people to get cheaper electricity. Some people wait for the bills to come in at the end of the month and do not know what price different things are going to come in at. They take every chance they can to turn off lights or heating to save as much as they can, even if it means doing without. Everything the Government has done has only benefited the electricity suppliers. They are making profits off these exponential increases. Along with Eamon Ryan and the Green Party, the current Government parties were part of the Government that stopped the designated maritime area plans, DMAPs, that would have allowed us to generate offshore wind power in Ireland coming out because they wanted it to go on the east coast. They would not allow it for the likes of Foynes and other areas on the west coast, where the highest wind speeds are. For five years, they held back the DMAPs to stop us developing offshore generation and are now talking about being environmentally friendly. We could have produced power offshore. We would have needed no wind turbines inland, where they have health implications. That is what they did. They held this up for six years and are now part of another Government, which is giving the people a pittance back and telling them they are looking after them. They are giving them nothing.

First, I thank Sinn Féin for bringing forward this very important Bill. As I have said in the Chamber several times, it is a fact that the cost of electricity has gone up every day since we closed down Bord na Móna. Reflecting on it now, that should not have happened but Eamon Ryan and the Greens were in a hurry. It should not have been closed down until we had at least made some preparations or had enough wind power or energy from other sources to replace it, although I fervently believe there was nothing wrong with generating electricity from turf or with cutting turf. I have turf cut and ready to save myself. It is very important to have your own fuel. People were wrongly advised that they should not cut turf. Many people are now afraid to cut it. They think they are breaking the law but they actually are not. They can provide turf for themselves. That is legal. I hope that will never change. The worst thing that is going on with the energy companies now is that there are so many of them and they are making fortunes on the backs of poor people. Even working-class people and small businesses are suffering. I cannot understand what is going on. Some companies are putting up their prices by a given percentage while others are putting them up by even more. One company has even brought its prices down. It seems there is no regulation whatsoever. The regulator is asleep, not there or not acting for some reason or other. It is not good enough. I call on the Minister of State, the Taoiseach and the senior Minister for energy to bring these electric companies before the relevant Oireachtas committee, whether that is the committee on energy, the committee on finance or some other committee. The ordinary people on the ground whom we represent are the people we are answerable to. The Minister, Deputy O'Brien, spoke about the amount that is being put into retrofitting but there are many people who are not benefiting at all. You need a lot of money to meet the qualifying conditions for the grant. On the warmer homes scheme, I was talking to someone last week and many people are being excluded because they do not qualify. They are not told for a year and half although they are waiting for it. That is not on at all. That should be rectified. Like everyone else, I am afraid that many people will be in the dark and cold this winter.

Tá áthas orm labhairt ar an mBille seo inniu. The ESB, Ireland's own exaggerated prices, surpluses and bonuses board, has been charging households and businesses some of the highest energy prices in Europe while boasting about profits and posting record profits. It is obscene and extremely unfair on households and businesses that are struggling to survive and yet it goes on and on. That is partly why I am broadly in support of this Private Members' Bill, which offers a focused and practical measure that finally gives the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities the statutory tools it has long lacked, including monthly price and margin transparency, proper oversight of hedging practices, stronger powers to address anticompetitive behaviour and an explicit legal duty to protect consumers from unfair pricing. However, two critical deficits remain within the Bill. Unless they are rectified, the Bill risks becoming yet another well-meaning statute that delivers little on the ground or in reality. The first deficit is that, as far as I can see, the Bill contains no automatic consumer relief mechanisms. Monitoring margins is useful but, when suppliers' profits surge, the CRU still cannot impose or mandate automatic rebates. The second deficit is that the legislation hands the CRU and the Minister broad discretionary powers but does not guarantee resourcing. We have seen this before. We only have to look at the unfair trading practices legislation and the Agri-Food Regulator. Both were launched as new oversight mechanisms to protect farmers and small suppliers but, because the underpinning legislation and the powers granted were not sufficiently robust, they have failed to deliver real and meaningful change. New institutions without real teeth simply become expensive talking shops and we have had more than enough of those.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this. People across Ireland are exhausted. They are exhausted by constant worry about bills. I welcome engagement with the Department, but it is not happening fast enough. I submitted a parliamentary question on the October 2024 consultation on EU Directive (EU) 2024/1711. There were five submissions from the ESB, Electric Ireland, Bord Gáis Éireann, Energia and the Electricity Association of Ireland regarding plug-in solar. Can what they said about plug-in solar be made available to the House so we, as legislators, can have a debate on plug-in solar? It is important that the people of Ireland understand what was said to the Department and why we have not acted on this. The UK and German governments are doing it. We have seen there is war and instability in global energy markets. I am blue in the face. We cannot just keep relying on temporary financial supports. We need to continue examining more reductions for home heating oil. However, subsidies alone are not good enough for a long-term energy strategy. The only long-term solution is reducing the cost of energy and moving from being a petrostate to an electrostate. That means accelerating renewable roll-out. Members have already spoken about battery storage and long-duration energy storage and whatever means, grid upgrades and local energy infrastructure. We already know the current system is under pressure. That is why the investment the Government gave for ESB, and the grid infrastructure announced under the programme for Government, were welcome, but we need delivery and we need it quickly. That is one more reason for plug-in solar - it would be done quickly. It makes no sense to ordinary people struggling with bills why we have not acted on this. We should be examining practical ideas that could directly help households. Renters and social tenants I represent constantly contact my office. I recognise we have different wiring standards and safety requirements than other countries. That should not stop us from examining a safe framework that could be developed. We should not be afraid of innovation in this sense, and I welcome the engagement I have had on this with the Department. I understand it is examining multiple things but the goal with regard to private wires should not be to replace the national grid or create an uncontrolled private system. The goal should be reducing pressure on constrained parts of the grid. So many studies out there show that accelerating these renewable connections, reducing curtailment and decentralising our grid will allow energy to be used more efficiently where the bottlenecks already exist. I have heard multiple people mention it in the Chamber today. When we bring in the private wires Bill I would love to see them support it and engage with it to make sure it is done for the betterment of the Irish people. If we are to bring in a private wires Bill that will be used by large-scale energy, there should be a proportionate community benefit fund that is directly linked to the savings associated with that private wires Bill. Anything we do in this House should benefit the Irish people. That is what the public needs and that is one of the solutions. We need delivery and we need to lower bills. I believe the Critical Infrastructure Bill in conjunction with the private wires Bill will help. This means acting faster on these so Ireland becomes more resilient and secure.

I am delighted to speak on this Bill. It is timely, and I support it. The Electricity Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2026 cannot be viewed in isolation. If we are serious about reducing electricity costs, we must address the core structural issues that continue to drive prices upwards. Only by tackling these areas together can we deliver lasting reductions in electricity costs for households and businesses across the country and reduce Ireland's dependency on imported energy. Almost 50% of the average electricity bill is driven by energy costs. Natural gas generates roughly half of Ireland's electricity and approximately 70% of the gas is imported, meaning Irish consumers are tied to the global price swings. We must have different options. This dependence on gas has had a direct and severe impact on our electricity prices. Gas prices today remain more than three times higher than before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These elevated prices have fed straight into higher electricity costs for households. In 2022 the then rural Independents, including Deputy Danny Healy-Rae, Deputy Nolan, other colleagues and I, introduced a Private Members' motion calling on the Government to allow oil and gas exploration off the Irish coast at Barryroe with the aim of strengthening Ireland's energy security and reducing reliance on volatile international oil. The Government of the day, at Eamon Ryan's behest, with Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, voted against the motion. The then Minister, Eamon Ryan, wanted to fill the pipe with Readymix concrete to block the pipe to make sure it could never be used. Concrete is scarce enough and dear enough. I do not know if it ever happened. I hope it did not. I called it national sabotage. If it did happen, it would be an act of vandalism and national sabotage. Now here we are. We had people here at that time and you were afraid to be seen talking to them. It was an international company that was going to bring in the oil at its own risk, produce it here and have it for us. It was taboo. We could not be seen talking to them. We had to have records of our meetings and everything else because we had to be too PC. That is what is wrong here. We have allowed big business to dictate. It is a holy terror that data centres are paying less for electricity than householders in Clonmel, Carrick-on-Suir, Cahir, Cashel, Tipperary town and the other rural areas. It is a holy terror we have a Government that would allow that and continues to allow that and to allow them to continue expanding data centres when our grid is at crashing point with amber lights, warnings and outages recently in Nenagh with no explanation. We are on a tenterhook, and we stopped our turf and briquettes, and we are importing them. That is what we have.

Ar dtús báire gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta Daly as ucht an rún seo a chur os comhair an Tí. Gabhaim buíochas leis na Baill a ghlac páirt sa díospóireacht an-tábhachtach seo. Deputy McGrath is right. We cannot have this debate in isolation, and it goes back to Deputy Heneghan's contribution about the turmoil in global energy markets. I make the point that in this debate some people are running to the hills to have their social media posts up. They want to score cheap points and do the kinds of things that some people do. That is not what this debate should be about, and I appreciate Deputy Pa Daly's sincerity in this. I made the point here last week that words and language matter. I pose a question to all of us in this Chamber tonight. We all accept there are too many people in energy uncertainty and in arrears with their bills, but I ask the Members to tell me how many people in Ireland were disconnected. How many? They should come back to me. How does it happen that people are disconnected? I make this point as a practising politician who has people in his office, who meets people, does not live in an ivory tower and who understands the frustration articulated by many in this Chamber. How is it that people are disconnected? I make the point that our language matters and people listen to us. For somebody to be disconnected there has to be no engagement whatever with the energy supplier. Let us be real and honest. If we engage as an advocate or if we engage with a person in arrears with an energy company, there will not be disconnection. We have all been that advocate and that person working for the vulnerable person. Let us be clear about that and not have Deputies coming in here tonight castigating some of us as uncaring and unkind because we are not. We understand full well. Nobody mentioned the moratorium on disconnections. I wonder why. I accept that people are faoi bhrú and I share the views expressed by many in the House that there needs be greater transparency on the pricing structure of bills so people can understand. If you sit down in an office or in a person's home and talk and engage with them, it is a comment that is made quite clear. People came into the Chamber tonight, in some sections of the House, like confetti at a wake, speaking about the profiteering and high profits. I ask people to read the CRU's report from yesterday about profitability. I ask Members to do that. The CRU said there was no evidence of energy companies profiteering, but there was a question as part of the report about the profit margin and further examination being needed. It goes back to my fundamental point that our words do matter and we have an ability to lead as Members. That is why I think, to be fair to Deputy Daly, that his contribution and what he is trying to do here is that. I readily accept that. In his reply at the beginning of the debate, the Minister outlined why the Government is opposing the Bill, and I will not go through that again. The Minister said that Government is committed to putting in place a well-funded energy market and tackling energy affordability. I repeat the point tonight that I do not believe any of us in this Chamber want to have people struggling to pay or to engage with the energy companies and suppliers. I totally understand the frustration and annoyance of people, but part of the overarching debate that we do not seem to have done is to speak about a move, as we should, away from fossil fuel dependency. I was at the Cork development forum yesterday and we got a paper on Cork's energy grid, our current capacity and future opportunities. We all need to have that conversation about the future of our energy supply. I welcome the opportunity to discuss the Commission for Regulation of Utilities with regard to our energy markets. The Government is deeply committed to ensuring that the CRU can effectively monitor and regulate electricity and gas prices and suppliers to ensure the best outcome for the customer. That is at the heart of what I want to be as a person in this Chamber representing people. It is to ensure, like many in this House have done, that energy is affordable. It is important that we do that. Equally, if you look at what the Government has done, there was action. While if you listened to some of the contributions, you would think Government did nothing, and I would take criticism any day of the week about being late, slow, or whatever, we did act. There was the VAT reduction, multiple rounds of energy credits, and protections given to customers since 2022. Nobody other than the Minister referred to the fact, as part of the debate, that we are now getting 49% of our electricity from renewables. We are moving away from the fossil fuel dependency. We need to continue to do more as a country and a people. We had consternation last week about the Taoiseach and Deputy O'Connor's intervention about nuclear energy, yet we are getting nuclear energy through the interconnector. We need to look at the structural factors around our energy prices. That is why I welcome the debate tonight. I know I am repeating myself, but I think this debate has been important because it gives us that opportunity. We are too energy-dependent on fossil fuels. There is a market vulnerability due to price that none of us, or at least not me, can predict for next week, let alone October or November. Looking at the debates in the House of Representatives in America, for example, with American prices, there is now a movement by some of President Trump's own people in the Republican party relating to his war in Iran. Former Minister Eamon Ryan has been criticised left, right and centre here tonight, but he was very successful at retrofitting, warmer homes, solar panels and offshore energy. We are working to ensure that households benefit directly from that renewable energy transition. Since 2019, €1.7 billion has been spent on SEAI schemes in support of homeowners, delivering almost 250,000 home energy improvements. That is fully equipped upgrades for households at risk of energy poverty under the warmer homes scheme. Last year, 5,000 businesses and community groups received grants to retrofit homes or install solar. As the Minister said in his contribution, that rooftop revolution has begun, and our job as leaders is to help, support and augment that so we can expand the number of people who are benefiting from that and their energy bills can be reduced. Where energy is produced, it can be sold back into the grid. Government supports have been discussed tonight. We are very much aware of and concerned about the pressures that people are under, be it householders or businesses, with the higher energy costs. We have provided support of the second-highest, if not the highest, packages in Europe in the last number of weeks. As a Government, we are taking action to help householders and businesses with the cost of fuel and energy. In concluding on behalf of the Government, I know the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, has addressed the issues about the Bill. I thank Deputy Daly for bringing it forward and having a good debate. I wish that some in the House would use their contributions to have a proper, meaningful, informed debate. Unlike them, Deputy Daly did put forward an informed debate. As the Minister said, the Government will be opposing the Bill.

My constituency of Dublin North-West has a growing older population, showing high concentrations of older residents, particularly those over 80 years of age. The constituency also has areas of economic disadvantage and high unemployment. People are struggling daily and this cost-of-living crisis and escalating costs are continuing to impact families, who are forced to make hard choices between putting food on the table for their families or paying for essential utilities and various housing costs, including medical care. Families are facing an almost €2,000 annual increase in household bills. Over the last number of winters, we have seen how families have struggled to heat their homes, as energy costs have gone through the roof. Electricity bills now make up a big part of the annual household expenditure. Families have received exorbitant electricity bills in recent years, leaving people stressed and fearful for the future, especially in these economically and politically unstable times. Many have gone into significant arrears and have even gone into debt because of these huge electricity bills. Families need protection from price-gouging and anti-competitive behaviour, and they need proper monitoring of energy prices. The Commission for Regulation of Utilities needs to be given additional powers to carry out such functions. Ireland once had some of the cheapest electricity prices in Europe. The break-up of the company has led, over time, to Ireland having the highest household electricity prices in the EU, with costs roughly 40% above the EU average. This is not sustainable and it is the ordinary person on the street who is suffering. This amendment to the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 will protect consumers and struggling families. It is needed now more than ever in this uncertain world. Families who are suffering need a break and to be protected from the rip-off energy prices.

I thank Deputy Pa Daly and my colleagues for bringing forward the Electricity Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2026. It is to monitor and regulate hedging practices, monitor anti-competitive behaviour, and force energy companies to provide data on pricing strategies to the regulator. It also provides legislation to regulate standing charges through the regulator. The current power of the CRU is minimal, to say the least. As someone said, it is like a dog with no teeth. Its public enforcement action is weak and limited. Energy companies need to be held to proper account. These companies are making millions upon millions of euro on an annual basis. Every time energy costs increase, so does the cost of living from food to clothing to services. This gouging is damaging lives and our economy. They must be regulated through legislation. How many times must the Government be told by Eurostat and the ESRI that energy prices are the highest in the European Union? This was before the illegal war started in Iran and Lebanon. Householders are paying double the generation costs and ten times the network costs of data centres. How can this be justified? How could the Government cut energy credits during a cost-of-living crisis with over 300,000 households in energy debt? I am sure more will follow when the figures are published in the next quarter. Sinn Féin is calling on the Government to act to back the workers of this country, to back the grannies and grandads, and to introduce a windfall tax on these energy companies to shield the most vulnerable in society and give the people the break that they deserve. We cannot continue to allow these energy companies to dictate and rip off the country by setting prices that are putting workers to the pin of their collars and driving masses of people into more debt. Sinn Féin asks all TDs to support the Electricity Regulation (Amendment) Bill 2026.

The biggest issue here is that while we have not had the Government attack this legislation, we have had it talk about the fact that it is premature and not the time. When we make proposals in respect of many issues, we hear that it is not the right time. The fact is that people are dealing with a cost-of-living crisis that was in existence long before the Iran and Lebanese war, and we could go back a long time before that. Once upon a time, we had the cheapest electricity prices in Europe. We now have the most expensive by 40%, and we did not really need Eurostat to tell us that. The fact is we have spoken for a huge period of time about the need to tackle energy costs properly. This regulation deals with the monitoring and regulating of hedging practices that are always used as the excuse why energy companies cannot do this, that and the other. It provides for enhanced powers to monitor and sanction anticompetitive behaviour because it is not okay for energy companies to screw over the Irish people. We need to see transparency. This is very straightforward. It is about having the ability to provide data on pricing strategies to the energy regulator so we can see what exactly the situation is. It is about taking energy affordability seriously. Again, Sinn Féin proposed legislation which will give the regulator the power to regulate standing charges. How long have we been talking about that? It is an absolute joke, and everyone believes it when we hear about data centres getting far cheaper, and from their point of view far fairer, costs than the regular Joe and Josephine out there. None of this is good enough. We need to see restructuring of the network charges and the PSO levy. We have talked about this for a long time and, yes, we think that there is a need to do it, while accepting that the Government made some moves under pressure from people who went out and protested initially. That is the only reason that any action was taken in the first place, and nobody will tell me different. There is huge anger out there. We know what we need to see and that is cheaper petrol and diesel at the pumps. The issues of those who need home heating oil to heat their homes - about 750,000 people - need to be dealt with. However, we do not see movement from the Government in relation to any of this. I am also told that the SEAI has a particular solar panel grant scheme for those who are vulnerable medical users that is not sufficiently funded at this point in time. Will the Minister of State come back to me on that? First, we need to deal with the profiteering of the energy companies. We need to see these sort of moves made and then we need to see energy and electricity made cheaper for the Irish people because this is a disgrace at this point in time.

This all goes back to the fact that Ireland once had the lowest electricity prices in the EU. We now have the highest. Successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments have presided over this change, did nothing to stop it and in fact reinforced the system that caused it. I thank all of the other speakers of the Opposition, maybe bar one, who agreed with many of the merits in this Bill and who are calling for more transparency. We agree with their calls for more transparency, more public trust and more power for the CRU. We agree on many of the issues. Indeed, we agree with some of what the Minister, Deputy O'Brien, said earlier on. He acknowledges the problems and accepts that extra powers are needed for the CRU to be revamped. Where we disagree, however, is where the Minister said that this is premature. That has been the problem to date because Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael are continuing to act like workers and families are in a position to wait until next year's budget, but they are not able to wait that long. The Government may say that there is a review in place or that a review has been completed, and we have to wait for the energy affordability task force, which was established about a year ago but still has not recommended any reforms. Unfortunately, people do not have the luxury of waiting around for that. I have listened to what has been said. Unfortunately, the Government is way behind with the retrofitting grants. EV-charging infrastructure and EV cars are weighted too much in favour of the wealthy. It is not fair. We are way behind on offshore wind. We are way behind on the onshore guidelines, and it is no wonder that one of its own Ministers said in an interview that the Government has been sitting on its hands and navel gazing about offshore wind. It has been way behind, and nothing has been done even in relation to the energy cloud. In the course of the debate, the Minister for State mentioned the disconnection moratorium but there are many people who are on prepay or pay-as-you-go plans. In effect, there is a disconnection policy in place for all of those people. The problem is that we do not have statistics or the data. We need the CRU to be revamped. The Minister of State referred to the energy credits which were in place in the months running up the last election and then stripped away. The new alliance between Deputy O'Connor and the Taoiseach, Deputy Martin, whereby they are tapping each other on the back, is unfortunately distracting from the main issues. We need a windfall tax. We need transparency and we need the CRU to be revamped.

In accordance with Standing Order 85(2), the division is postponed until the weekly division time on Wednesday, 13 May 2026.