Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

The Minister stated that the price is because of the war. How come all these energy companies are making such high profits? Is that because of the war?

How come it always seems to benefit the companies rather than the consumer? For example, today Deputies were talking about standing charges and the Minister stated that the companies have to justify these standing charges. However, the Minister can stop them putting up these standing charges.

There is an amount of people coming to me in my constituency office about tariffs and how they are being advised every 12 months to change to a different company. Can the Minister not force these energy companies to give their best prices on tariffs from day one?

These are simple issues. My siblings keep telling me to change and I will get the standing charge, this, that and the other.

This is a serious situation and the Minister has the power. This is somewhere we can cut prices. I will not use the word "waffling", but the Minister has an opportunity to do something here. Will he please do something to reduce the prices to the consumer?

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