Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I do not recall seeing that particular email but I will ask my private secretary to pull it out for me and I will take a look at it today or tomorrow. That is a huge increase from 6 cent to 25 cent. For any business facing that sort of increase in energy costs it will be very serious and very severe. I will take a look at it.

Obviously responsibility for energy and energy prices does not fall under my remit or that of the Department. It is the responsibility of the Minister, Deputy Ryan. I will take up the point the Deputy raised on competition and switching with him and with the regulator. As the Deputy pointed out, domestic users can switch a lot and achieve reductions in their bills this way. They tend not to. People have busy lives and do not get around to it. I encourage them to do so. For businesses it is a little bit more difficult. I re-emphasise the point I made earlier. The best thing we can do, and the Department is doing this, in the medium term is to help businesses to move away from fossil fuels and towards renewables and alternative sources. These will be much more reliable and stable in price.

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