Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I think it is a bit more than a timing issue, given we see these huge profits. Even looking at the banks alone, they are projected to get something like €5 billion in profits for the next year. It is very hard for people who are experiencing that shock in their own households to see that we seem to excuse away that shock. While I have limited time to talk about this, it is very important not to separate the huge profits that are being made through the pressure on people and households to just accept what is being given to them.

I want to focus on the specific aspect of the current inflation in the energy markets. Electricity prices have increased by 87% since 2021 and they have been applied to people who have had no, or very small, increases in their wages. However, the wholesale prices fell by 64% in the 12 months to July and we have seen a sustained decrease in wholesale costs, and the same has been true of gas prices since the end of last year. While electricity prices across the euro area have fallen substantially since October, we have seen no equivalent fall in Irish electricity prices in this period, which is referenced in today's report at figures 39 and 40. In the quarterly economic commentary in June, the ESRI warned that this could be due to anti-competitive behaviour where firms fail to pass on wholesale price decreases in order to boost profits, although it just says it "could be". Do the witnesses agree with the ESRI’s comments? What is their view on the slow pass-through of reduced energy costs to consumers?