Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The truth is that the Government has struck the right balance in this. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, has said that the Government's measures in the recent budget will protect people who are at risk of going into energy poverty. They will be protected from that by the measures the Government has introduced. That is a fact and not something produced by the Government. Of course, we are facing huge surges. The wholesale costs for Electric Ireland have risen from €300 million to €2 billion, a sevenfold increase in the cost of the electricity it produces and has to sell. That is the reality of the world we are living in. That has been caused by the war in Ukraine and by very high dependence on gas from the Russian market. That is the reality we face.

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