Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Every country across Europe is in that same position, where their energy companies, given what has happened in the wholesale markets, will want to see the suppliers reduce costs for consumers. In Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, France and Poland, and countries like that, it is really important for them because what they are doing is subsidising the difference between the lower cost that they have guaranteed for the citizens, and what the energy companies are providing. They are doing that, and looking for downward pressure, but they are recognising that it is not happening immediately. That is why they have come in, in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis, and said they are going to ensure that the price of electricity cannot go above a certain level, and give people that certainty and breathing space. It is a major mistake for the Government not to do the same.

We are now in a position where the energy credits have run out, in the main. Energy that is consumed by people in the next number of weeks will not be supported by Government, depending on when bills fall. It will be charged at the full rate. The rates that are being charged are the highest that they have ever been, with the exception one company and there is now no support for them.

I acknowledge that there are different ways to do this. A fast way to do this was the energy credit. It had major problems. There are holiday homes lying idle, and they have got €800 credit on their bills. It was not done on the basis of consumption, whereas a cap is based on consumption. A cap, depending on the model that is used, can look to ensure that people are not consuming more, because it is applied it. For example, under the German model, it was 85% of consumption last year. There are all of these inbuilt benefits. These countries are not doing this for just a week or a month. They are guaranteeing it for the rest of the year. Germany only moved at Christmas. The wholesale markets were starting to go down at that time.

Genuinely - and I say this seriously - I think it is pathetic to go on social media and see Fine Gael Deputies asking people to sign a petition to get energy companies to reduce their costs, when they know fine well that they have the ability, and they actually have the responsibility and duty, to protect these individuals from the huge energy price increases. The Government also opposed a windfall tax. I am conscious the Minister was not on the committee at the time, but his predecessor, in this committee, argued against a windfall tax on energy companies. He said it would be counterproductive to investment and all the rest. That was about this time last year.

Of course we want energy companies pass on reductions and reduce their prices as quickly as possible. As the Minister said, some of them will argue that they bought well in advance and so on and so forth. I do not know the validity of that. I am not able to get under the bonnet of when these companies bought and at what prices. However, there are ways of dealing with that by way of taxes that can be applied such as windfall taxes and so on. There is a duty in the middle of all of this to support individuals, and I strongly urge the Minister, at the next meeting of the Eurogroup, to talk to his German counterpart, to talk to the Dutch, and have a conversation with them. They have the exact same issues as the Minister.

They want to see the prices reduced. In the meantime, they are also saying they will not allow their citizens to be put under serious pressure with the cost of energy.

At a family wedding last weekend, I spoke to an old friend who now lives in Australia. He had a lot to say about the Irish Government. I will not repeat some of his words because some of them were quite unparliamentary. However, he told me he came home and paid an energy bill for his father. It was €800. What world are we living in when €800 is the bimonthly bill for a household in west Donegal? These bills are going to roll into these households in coming weeks. The Government says it is not going to intervene, bar Fine Gael taking out a petition on social media and Fianna Fáil saying it wants companies to reduce prices. What are they going to do about it? They will call on the companies to reduce prices but, in the meantime, they are not really going to do anything. The spin from Government has been that we are coming into the summer months. The Central Statistics Office, CSO, is very clear that in the three months from March to May, households consume as much electricity as they do between October and December. Between March and May 2021, households consumed more electricity than between October and December. There will be no big drop in bills unless prices come down or the Government intervenes.