Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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98. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government to report on his engagements with the CRU since he took office; if he has discussed what powers they have to monitor and regulate hedging; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44559/25]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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99. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the engagements he has had with the CRU regarding the speed of passthrough between wholesale and retail energy prices; to outline the reasons prices have fallen more slowly here than in other states; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44560/25]

Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)
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107. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 204 of 29 July 2025, to report on meeting with energy suppliers; the breakdown of the energy suppliers he has met with since taking office; the dates these meetings took place; whether energy price increases and decreases were discussed; if he discussed network charge passthrough to energy bills; if the impact on bills of PR 6 was discussed, in tabular form, and to report on any more discussions that took place. [44746/25]

Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal East, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 98, 99 and 107 together.

The Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) was assigned consumer protection functions under the 1999 Electricity Regulation Act and subsequent legislation and has statutory responsibility for the compliance by energy suppliers with their consumer protection obligations. The CRU is an independent regulator, accountable to a committee of the Oireachtas and not to me as Minister.

The CRU published a report on retail energy markets in September 2023 in relation to competition and supplier pricing in the energy market. The report was in response to a request by then Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications, Eamon Ryan TD, to examine supplier hedging practices and pricing strategies in the Irish Energy market. Based on a review of supplier prices and wholesale market costs, the CRU considers that retail prices are broadly continuing to reflect underlying cost drivers, such as wholesale gas and electricity prices, but with a lag period due to supplier hedging strategies. This hedging reduced the impact on consumers of the sustained high and volatile prices, during the period in advance of and during Russian invasion of Ukraine. This slower and smoother increase, facilitated by hedging, is expected to be mirrored by similar slower and smoother decrease, should wholesale and futures prices continue to decline.

Government is deeply conscious of the impact which rising energy prices, driven by an unprecedented increase in wholesale prices and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have had on Irish consumers and businesses. The Government has made a number of important commitments in respect of addressing these energy price increases, both in terms of the review of the regulatory framework and increasing Ireland’s overall energy supply and independence.

As Minister, I meet with a range of stakeholders on important topics including energy prices, and I can confirm that I have met with both the CRU and energy suppliers since being appointed as Minister. In addition to my interactions, my officials meet with suppliers on a regular basis and a key message to them is the critical importance of prices being reduced as soon as possible.

I have written to individual supply companies to gain an understanding of measures they might introduce to support households this winter.

Under the Programme for Government 2025, we have committed to commissioning an independent review into the speed and level of pass through from wholesale prices to retail prices, with an additional assessment of the overall price dynamics and an overall focus on the competitiveness of the Irish economy. This is a priority and my Department has established a cross-Government National Energy Affordability Taskforce (NEAT) to identify, assess and implement measures that will enhance energy affordability for households and businesses, while delivering key renewable commitments and protecting security of supply and economic stability.

The core objectives of the Taskforce include drafting an interim plan identifying measures to support energy consumers in advance of Budget 2026, and an Energy Affordability Action plan, which will examine measures and structural reforms to lower costs for households and businesses.