Mairead Farrell (Galway West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I have one more question. A piece in The Irish Timesrecently stated that energy industry figures here were predicting that Irish electricity prices will rise by 40% to 50%. Obviously that is attributed to external factors and as Dr. Cassidy noted in his opening statement, supply-side issues. Russian gas supplies, from what I can see, have actually been increasing rather than decreasing and according to one source by as much as 40%. I also checked the International Energy Agency’s most recent report produced this month, which stated:

The OPEC+ alliance agreed on 2 March to stick with a modest, scheduled output rise ... insisting no supply shortage exists. Saudi Arabia and the UAE – the only producers with substantial spare capacity – are, so far, showing no willingness to tap into their reserves.

So, if supplies have not reduced but have actually increased and production costs are unchanged, is it speculation about future prices that is driving it? I would be interested to hear that because obviously I have heard about the price of oil and gas futures having risen sharply but as we know, futures are essentially bets on the future and we know the future is extremely uncertain as we saw in the last few months with the invasion of Ukraine. Who could have really predicted that? What role is monopoly pricing playing? Is price gouging a factor?