Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

This morning, I was at a briefing from the Society of St. Vincent de Paul at which the speakers talked about energy poverty and expressed their concerns about what is going to happen to people regarding the high costs of energy. They said that over the course of the past year, the organisation had 230,000 requests of help, including 1,200 a day in December. I would imagine that for those thousands of people, hearing about the €847 million profit of the ESB today must be absolutely gut-wrenching. That increase the ESB has seen is directly as a result of the high wholesale prices in generation. I understand the ESB has recommended an enhanced dividend to be paid to the State of €327 million. However, that will still leave the ESB, according to my calculations, with €231 million in profits this year, which, to me, is an obscene profit for a company to be making in the midst of such an energy crisis. Will the Taoiseach commit to making sure all the ESB's profits come back to the State and are ring-fenced to support those in energy poverty?

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