Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy O'Donnell who has raised a question in which many consumers throughout the country will be interested on feeding through reduced wholesale gas prices to the domestic electricity and gas prices charged to households and businesses in Ireland. As the Deputy knows, pricing is a matter for the companies themselves. He can be assured the Minister, Deputy Ryan, the Department and the CRU are in ongoing engagement on this issue and with the companies themselves, while recognising the fact that setting the prices is a commercial matter for the companies themselves. In many cases we are dealing with futures contracts that have been entered into.

In some cases, the high wholesale prices were locked in for a period. It might, therefore, take a while for the reduced prices to come through at consumer level but we all want to see that happen as quickly as possible.

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