Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I do not think the Minister gets it. I do not think he quite understands the impact that this fuel and energy crisis is having on individuals. A man contacted my constituency office this week. He is a cancer survivor and has diabetes. He made the choice to pay his electricity bill rather than buy the food he needed. He ended up in hospital as a result of a hypoglycaemic attack. That is what people in our country are facing.

Rather than the Minister talking to the CRU and asking it to consider measures that are already successful in the UK, I ask the Minister to use his powers under the Electricity Regulation Act to direct the CRU to bring in this short-term measure. We need direct action now. We do not have the luxury of spending weeks and months in discussion. The time to take action is now. I ask the Minister to direct the CRU to do that.

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