Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

Is it not a fact that householders, citizens and businesses are waiting with trepidation to see what energy — electricity and gas — price rises will occur this year, with the gas industry obviously looking for a 40% price rise and the electricity industry looking for increases? Given that over the past four or five years there have been increases of the order of 60%, prices will have more than doubled in their period in Government. Is not the net result of this that businesses are threatened with inefficiency and householders, particularly in the case of senior citizens, end up being vulnerable, living in cold homes? The Minister will have noted the recent UCD study, for example, which showed that almost 20% of Irish households were considered not to have sufficient heat because often people felt they could not afford to turn it on. This results in senior citizens going around their homes in overcoats.

Would the Minister agree there is a serious problem and his answer is too blasé? Will he issue a directive to CER? Will he amend his Energy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill 2006 to allow for a statutorily based consumer panel within CER representing householders and business? Will he agree this is what is needed?

For example, each of the British regulators, Ofgem, Ofcom and PostCom, has a strong consumer lobby which does its best for consumers. Will the Minister agree he has failed Irish consumers? Will he agree it is shameful for the Government that last year's UCD study on household heating showed that up to 650 elderly people may have died because of cold because of the Government's failure to bring forward stronger measures to protect them?

Has the Minister spoken to the Minister for Finance about excise, VAT and indirect taxation on electricity, gas and oil? Is he undertaking any such discussions in the context of the final budget of this Government? Many citizens feel there should be intense discussions about how to hold the price of energy in this difficult time.

Has the Minister spoken to his United Kingdom counterpart on the problem with wholesale gas prices in the UK? Given the Irish gas market is effectively part of the UK gas market, is the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, having any input into it? Has there been any talk about the problems the UK has experienced with its gas market?

Does the Minister accept the view of distinguished economists such as Paul Hunt that there is an element of gold-plating in the gas network roll out and, indeed, possibly even in electricity roll outs, and that this is an area in which the Minister should take a pro-active role?

The Minister will probably agree that last winter was one of the coldest in our lifetime. For the sake of vulnerable households such as the elderly, would the Minister agree it is time he took a vigorous role on behalf of citizens, householders and businesses in energy pricing? It is not good enough to merely take a blasé, almost bystander, approach which is so characteristic of the Taoiseach and which the Minister is now adopting.

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