John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank witnesses. This issue has arisen in the past few weeks in the context of reduction in fuel price and people had noticed it. It is important that the witnesses have explained why there might not be an immediate reduction. The committee has been told how energy is bought ahead of time. Is there a presumption that there will be a reduction for the remainder of the year since supplies of gas were bought when the price was lower?

Switching was also mentioned. All the witnesses seem to put huge effort into getting customers to switch. The committee would like to know if that is where resources are going, rather than on reducing the basic price.

There have been suggestions by witnesses that bigger reductions were available for bigger customers such as businesses or industry. Is there discrimination to a certain extent?

For instance, does the small corner shop pay the same rate as a domestic customer or is it just the very big industry customers that get the bigger reductions?