Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

The systems we have in place, including the CRU, are designed to protect consumers exactly in the way the Deputy outlined. In recent years, where there were instances of bill amounts not being correct, refunds were given to the customers involved as soon as the errors were discovered. The CRU's regulatory context, like those of so many of our other regulatory bodies, has been dramatically increased in the past two years to ensure that it has the capability of overseeing that function.

This Government's role is, first and foremost, to make sure there are no excess profits being made. The introduction of the proposed legislation last month, which will give rise to some of the highest tax rates of any European country in this regard, is an example showing that we do take this duty of protecting the consumer to the maximum extent we can. Those revenues, which will be lower than may have originally been expected, because gas prices have fallen, that accrue from the market cap will go back to electricity customers, because we, like the Deputy and every party in this House, wish to protect consumers through this difficult time.

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