Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

At the centre of our energy policy is the interest of Irish householders and businesses, to ensure we can give them a secure, competitive and clean electricity supply. The policies we are following will do exactly that. We are not following competitive policies for the sake of some ideological reason but from the clear understanding that the introduction, particularly in recent weeks, of very large international utilities into this market will be the most important factor in continually driving down prices for the Irish householder and business community over the next year, five years and ten years. That will deliver them lower prices.

This is a crucial investment and development we must support and see through. We must not turn it upside-down by completely getting rid of a regulatory system that is in place and acts as a crucial piece of infrastructure in an electricity market.

See this speech in context