Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

I will start with energy prices. First, I acknowledge how difficult it is for customers at present. We are keenly aware that energy prices are putting major pressure on many households and businesses across the country. This is a critical concern for CRU. The current circumstances are unprecedented, largely driven by wholesale gas prices. We will continue to work with the Government and other stakeholders to see what we can do to support energy customers in this difficult time. The Deputy looked back at the trends in energy prices over time. Yes, what we typically find over time looking at the EUROSTAT prices is that Irish prices tend to be above the EU average, but trending closer to the euro area average. There is a significant differential between prices in different parts of the EU.

In fact, a recent Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators, ACER, study that looked at price trends across the EU highlighted that in member states such as Ireland, which are at the periphery of the European markets, less well interconnected than central European markets and highly dependent on gas, there tends to be higher prices. In general, one would see us as being effectively at the end of a pipeline. Not only are we paying the commodity price for gas in this case, we are also paying for the transport costs of bringing gas across interconnectors and into our own gas network.

We tend to have above EU area prices and this has been the trend. They are closer to euro area averages and not beyond what other euro area countries are experiencing, particularly those with similar features to our market such as being geographically distant and dependent on imports.

With regard to the profits of energy companies, these can change over time. It is difficult to pick up trends when looking at any particular period. We could have a high increase in profitability because there was a low profit number in a previous period. We have no evidence to suggest current or previous prices are related to excess profits in the sector. It is a competitive sector. Companies make investments and incur costs associated with generating electricity or supplying electricity. They generally expect to make some return on it.