Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

Energy costs constitute an issue of major concern for families and businesses in Ireland and across the EU. We acknowledge that. If I have time, I can speak about some of the protections in place. The Senator asked the broader question relating to the costs of transition. We came before the committee in June or July and were very clear that the transition would not be costless. In order to support our decarbonisation objectives we are going to need to invest in new grid infrastructure and generation capacity, both in renewable and gas-fired flexible generation. We will also need to invest in system services that will support the additional renewables on the grid. All that investment is funded by customers. We were quite clear that over time we expect to see that investment filtering through to customer bills, using competitive auctions where we cannot minimise the cost. We will use network regulation to drive efficiency and innovation to minimise cost. To be open, however, those costs will be there.

What we have seen in recent weeks and months is significantly beyond anything we might have expected when we spoke earlier this year. It is exceptional in many ways. On the question of our role in lower bills, our first action is to give customers options. I invite all customers to check if they are on the best tariff for themselves, either by shopping around and switching or contacting their supplier to find out if they are on the best deal.