Mr. Pat Fenlon:

We understand that this is a very difficult time for many of our customers who have significant difficulty paying the increased bills. We are engaging daily with customers who are in difficulty and working with them to help them deal with those increases by putting in place payment plans. We understand, therefore, that when people hear those profit numbers, they can be difficult to reconcile. The ESB, as a State-owned company, pays half of its profits back to the State, between a dividend policy of 40% and tax, while the other half funds investment in energy infrastructure, which is critical to delivering not just reliable electricity supply but also the net-zero transition into the future for Ireland.

On the scale of the company, we have €17 billion in assets. The profit at an operating level is similar to that in the half-year period for last year. From a competitive point of view, our prices - we have continued to try to offer prices that are as competitive as we can - and our standard variable tariffs have tended to be at the lower end of available prices for the past 18 months.

We understand the difficulty for customers . We continue to work with those customers who are in difficulty.