Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I join in our colleague's welcome for Professor Huxley, an Englishman who, in a great tradition, believes in fairness in the way the United Kingdom treats this country.

I raise the article by Thomas Molloy in the Irish Independent yesterday in which he stated that electricity prices here are the second highest in the European Union after Cyprus. He estimated they were 40.25% above the EU average. That is a serious cost to industries such as pharmaceuticals, food processing and the growing computer sector. Will the Leader ask the Minister, Deputy Bruton, as the Minister in charge of overall national competitiveness, to address the House on the issue of the high cost of those sheltered sector services such as the one I have mentioned, energy, and accounting and legal services because they damage the competitiveness of Ireland internationally?