Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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57. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment the reason household electricity bills in Ireland are more expensive than the European average; his plans to address electricity costs and energy supply challenges; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [46059/22]

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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We all know that the Irish people are suffering hard. Not a month passes that the prices are not going up, and they are only going one way. I have been asked by my constituents to ask the Minister a couple of questions. First of all, I want to know what is the reason that the household electricity bills in Ireland are more expensive than the European average and what are the Minister's plans to address the electricity costs and energy supply challenges. This is serious and I ask the Minister to give decent answers, not what is written in front of him but what exactly is happening.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I will read out some of the response because it has been thought through.

The first message is that the current high prices are caused by the war in Ukraine. I hope that is agreed by everyone in this House. Failure to understand that is really challenging because I do not see any other explanation.

We face particular challenges because we are a price taker on international markets and Irish electricity and gas prices have historically been affected by long-standing drivers such as geographical isolation, dispersed population, fossil fuel dependency and small market scale.

The Government is acutely aware of the impact on consumers of these high electricity and gas prices and introduced last year, as I stated earlier, a €2.4 billion package. We will go further this year in budget 2023 to protect our people.

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, as I said earlier, has also announced enhanced consumer protection measures to be implemented by electricity and gas providers ahead of the coming winter. That will provide additional protections from disconnections and other safeguards for customers.

The CRU, as I stated in an earlier contribution, is responsible for electricity regulation. It ceased price setting for electricity and gas in 2011 and 2014, respectively. Therefore, the setting of prices in that regard is a commercial matter for individual supply companies. It also has statutory responsibility to ensure security of supply and has the duty to monitor electricity supplies and to make sure measures are in place as considered necessary to protect that security of supply. The CRU, assisted by EirGrid and my Department, has a programme of demand and supply-side actions under way to ensure the security of our electricity supply over the coming winters.

Our long-term priority and the best long-term approach for Ireland is to insulate consumers from volatility on international wholesale energy markets by investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy, expanding interconnection with European and neighbouring markets and deepening internal market integration.

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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The Minister stated that the price is because of the war. How come all these energy companies are making such high profits? Is that because of the war?

How come it always seems to benefit the companies rather than the consumer? For example, today Deputies were talking about standing charges and the Minister stated that the companies have to justify these standing charges. However, the Minister can stop them putting up these standing charges.

There is an amount of people coming to me in my constituency office about tariffs and how they are being advised every 12 months to change to a different company. Can the Minister not force these energy companies to give their best prices on tariffs from day one?

These are simple issues. My siblings keep telling me to change and I will get the standing charge, this, that and the other.

This is a serious situation and the Minister has the power. This is somewhere we can cut prices. I will not use the word "waffling", but the Minister has an opportunity to do something here. Will he please do something to reduce the prices to the consumer?

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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Those high profits and high prices are because the price of gas is ten times its historical average.

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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What about the tariffs?

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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If I can answer the Deputy's question as to what to do about those profits, certain generators who are not generating with gas will get a supernormal profit because the market price is way above their production price cost. We are working with the European Union, which is the appropriate way to do it. We address this as a wartime measure in response to what the Russian Government is doing by taking some of that excess profit in an intermarginal price system and bringing that back to the public. That is not agreed yet. We have to go to Brussels on 30 September to address that. It is one of the ways, along with the other measures we will introduce in the budget, which will help bring down the prices or help shield consumers from the worst elements of this energy price crisis. There are other measures in social welfare, energy credits and in business supports. They will be set out in the budget.

Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent)
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The Minister has me breathless here. I asked him simple questions. The Minister has an opportunity to reduce the price to the consumer and he has been doing absolutely nothing. I will be honest with the Minister. I would hate to see him as CEO of a company because if he were CEO of a company, he would be sacked straightaway. The Minister will not even have a look at simple wee things I am asking him to do.

The Minister stated the companies have to justify this and justify that. The Minister says we are part of the EU. If we are part of the EU, how come our prices are above the EU average? Another Deputy mentioned Spain and the Minister responded with the EU. The Minister keeps mentioning the EU. If the EU so good to us, why does it not help us?

What can the Minister do about VAT? Will VAT continue they way it is? The Government reduced it from 13.5% to 9% in May and it is up at the end of October.

People want a bit of help here at present. If we are that good with the EU, the Minister should get on to the EU and ask how come we in Ireland are paying above the average prices. It makes no sense whatsoever.

I come from a business background. God forgive me, when I had my company going I put my best price forward. These companies should deal with the tariff prices instead of messing around. We are in different times. People are really bleeding. People are looking for help. It is important that these companies, the Government and we all work together.

Please God, this will only happen for maybe one or two years, but we need the Minister. The Minister is our CEO and we need him to do this right.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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To answer the Deputy's question as to why we are above the other European countries in price levels, it is because we are so dependant on fossil fuels. Other than the Corrib gas field, we do not have any of those fossil fuels. We have to import them all. It is because we have the most dispersed population in Europe and the price of getting electricity and getting gas and getting other energy to a dispersed population is much more expensive than to a concentrated one. That is a reality. Lastly, it is because of the smaller scale and geographic isolation of our markets.

The answer to that is for us to develop our own fuels where we have comparative competitive advantage, particularly in wind. I hope - we will see whether it happens - the first of those offshore wind farms off the coast of Louth will proceed. If we are looking to protect our households, that sort of approach, where we start relying on our own resources not being held to ransom by external governments, is where we can go.

Going back to the debate we had earlier, we help our people by insulating and making sure that our dispersed houses are warm by design and that we do not have to spend so much. That is the answer that we have to follow. That is the path that brings us cheaper energy prices.