Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I am glad the Taoiseach acknowledges that not enough is being done but the Government is not just a bystander in this. It is time for a more urgent sense of intervention by the Government on this issue because it seems to people nach bhfuil an Rialtas ag déanamh aon rud. The Government is not doing anything for people who are seeing this inequity. It is amounting to a quadruple whammy because we have seen the magnitude of energy providers' profits and we have seen the inertia and delay in the Government's approach to a windfall tax. I am glad that the Taoiseach has confirmed that will be introduced and that the Government is looking at the super dividend approach. However, we need to know when that will happen.

The third thing we are seeing is the extortionate charges on household and, fourth, the inequity where we see reductions in wholesale prices being passed on to businesses but not to families and households. There are increasingly questions about the rationale being offered by energy companies. Electric Ireland suggested that there are hedging contracts that prevent it from moving on household bills as swiftly as it is moving on business bills, but business groups are questioning this so-called explanation and this idea that hedging contracts must necessarily lead to a time lag between wholesale price falls and reductions in bills for households. It is simply not good enough. It is good to hear the Taoiseach agree with me on the hardship that individual families and households are facing but it is not good enough that the Government is simply acting as a bystander and adopting this wait-and-see approach without acting urgently to intervene to ensure households will see the necessary reductions in their bills.

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