Gerald Nash (Louth, Labour)
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I am glad that at the latter end of his contribution the Minister, Deputy McGrath, mentioned corporate profitability and how that is in fact contributing to the high-inflation environment we are experiencing at the moment and, to be fair, the actions the Government has taken to the cap on market revenues in terms of energy companies. The Minister says he is happy to discuss this. I am interested in establishing exactly how the resources we generate for the State will be used to bring down the cost of electricity bills. I will refer to a reply to a parliamentary question I received from the Minister, Deputy Ryan, today. He informed me that capital market revenues will be collected by the regulator, that is, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, and the proceeds from the cap will be retained and used in the electricity sector to lower prices for consumers.

How will that revenue be deployed? What does the Minister mean when he says that the revenue will be retained and used in the electricity sector directly? What precisely does he mean by that?