Mr. John Kinnane:

The key point there is we have the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities, CRU, but I would not be in a position to deal with the detail of the legislative background of energy pricing. The approach taken by Government was to introduce the energy credit to offset part of the increase in the electricity bills and then to use the fuel allowance as a means of targeting the additional funding at the most vulnerable sections of society and possibly the sections of society that are seeing higher levels of inflation because more of their income is being spent on the items the Deputy highlighted. That is the logic behind the approach, namely, to provide the broad-based support through the energy credit and then the targeted support through the fuel allowance.