Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I had the pleasure of shadowing the Minister in his previous portfolio when we had a situation with the Commission for Energy Regulation, CER. The DTA will become the regulator of fares on which the Minister had a direct say last year and his predecessors in every year prior to then. How do we know we will not have the same situation this autumn because next month, when we are out of session, gas and electricity prices will see a major jump? Deputy Durkan and I went through this dance of despair every summer when we followed the energy portfolio. Is the Minister establishing the DTA to be another CER so he will be able to state it was responsible for introducing higher fares and it had nothing to do with him despite what he stated about the reference to himself under section 26?

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