Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)

I begin by welcoming developments for peace in Gaza, as I know we all do, and hope we will see the start of a path to real peace for all in the Middle East.

I think we can agree that we are all living in the real world. In the real world, it is a good thing that we are having a debate about energy prices. It is a good thing that we are debating the cost of energy. However, the "cost of energy" is a misnomer because the prices being inflicted by energy companies on households are reflecting practices of gross profiteering. They are far detached from real costs. Energy providers are not behaving as though their product is a public good and the true cost is being paid by hard-pressed families and households, people who are toiling through a cost-of-living crisis and who saw the budget come and go last week with, it has to be said, almost no reprieve or relief for them or their household finances. That is happening while executives at the energy companies are reaping record rewards. I remind the Taoiseach that Flogas hiked its prices by 7% after its parent company recorded operating profits of €820 million. Bord Gáis, after a year in which it made €75 million in profit, is adding €218 per year to the average bill. Pinergy added almost 10% despite its revenues having increased by nearly 40% last year. Energia is increasing its electricity prices by more than 12% after recording €154 million in profits last year. I am reading this from a script because it has to be read into the record. Pushing more households into fuel poverty is a high price to pay for what is clearly the hoarding of wealth by energy companies.

Yesterday and today, the Taoiseach has pointed out that energy credits are pocketed by energy companies and that is why they needed to go, but his analysis misses the point about the support that households get from such credits. The reality is that in last week's budget, the Government pulled the rug from beneath thousands of struggling families as winter bites. It did not use the time during which those measures were in place to bring in more sustainable supports. That is why we are seeing so many households in arrears. That is the reality.

The Labour Party's support for targeted energy credits is grounded in reality and the need to support ordinary households that are being punished for the failure of the Government to bring down energy prices. The Government was, it seemed, well able last week to ignore economic advice when it came to tax breaks for developers and, indeed, for a VAT cut for one sector, which will cost €681 million, without any evidence that it will save a single job or independent business. Yet when it comes to energy credits, a lifeline for people, it seems the Government is suddenly a slave to undergraduate economics. It says it wants more efficient solutions but we in Labour always offer constructive solutions. Deputy Ahern has pointed out that under the EU electricity and gas directives, price regulation is allowed in exceptional circumstances - for example, to protect vulnerable customers. Why is the Government not using that mechanism to rein in the greedy energy companies? Why is it not using section 10 of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999? Will the Taoiseach take the powers available to him to help struggling households with energy bills this winter?

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