Mark Ward (Dublin Mid West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Over the last nine months, Luxembourg has taken different positions to Ireland on how to address the impact of energy hikes on domestic users and businesses. Recent figures published by EUROSTAT show that Ireland is the most expensive state in the EU with the highest energy costs and the highest health costs in the Union. CSO data tells us household energy prices have risen by 60%. Since the first quarter this year wholesale prices have fallen by 64% in the same period. Why do Irish electricity prices remain so high when prices in Europe have fallen sharply in recent months? My colleague, Deputy Doherty, wrote to the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities last week calling on it to undertake an intensive and intrusive supervision of retail pricing. EUROSTAT figures also showed a slide in Irish living standards compared with our European partners for the last year. The social and economic consequences of the protracted housing and cost-of-living crises are intolerable to too many. Full employment means little to the hundreds of thousands of young people, working families and vulnerable communities for whom the social contract has been well and truly broken by Fine Gael Governments over the last decade. Does the Taoiseach accept his Government's failure to curb the cost of living and the housing crisis? Will we see a ramping up of measures in budget 2024 to address both once and for all?

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