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

We have statutory bodies that this House has empowered through legislation to carry out certain functions, and when it comes to ensuring that we have a competitive marketplace generally and that there are no anti-competitive practices. We have the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. It has examined the retail sector, for example, and it has not stood up some of the charges that have been made by the Opposition on the level of competition in that sector. It has extensive powers. We have the energy regulator as well, which also has extensive powers, but we as a Government do not set prices. We are not responsible for energy pricing, but we of course have responsibility for the overall environment within which these prices are being set. We absolutely have an obligation to call out where we see it that there is a justification for a greater pass through to the consumers at a retail level of the dramatic reductions that there have been at wholesale level. I have no doubt they will come, but they need to come quickly because it should not fall on taxpayers to have to step in and support households who are paying higher prices than the market justifies at this time.

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