Kieran O'Donnell (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This feeds into my second question, which is on energy costs. On the ESRI report, I want the institute to explain some evidence, which is that some energy companies are using the greater-than-expected profits on the generation side to offset losses on the supply side, thereby putting downward pressure on customer prices. My question to both the Irish Fiscal Advisory Council and to the ESRI is what should be done. Measures will be taken in Europe on decoupling the price of using electricity being benchmarked to the price of wholesale gas. What measures can the Irish Government now take that would bring down the price of energy to the end consumers, that is, households and businesses? Second, I take the point on inflation but at the end of the day, people at home who cannot pay the electricity bill - there are businesses whose bills are going up twofold and threefold at present - are not particularly worried about the inflation measures, they need supports. Can the witnesses deal with both sides of the coin? What can the Irish Government do to bring down the cost of energy to households and businesses? Second, what additional financial supports should be put in place? I am thinking of the windfall gains, the corporation tax and the figure of €2.2 billion about which Mr. Barnes spoke. Is there more scope in that area? I ask the witnesses to deal with both issues briefly.