Tá áthas orm labhairt ar an mBille seo inniu. The ESB, Ireland's own exaggerated prices, surpluses and bonuses board, has been charging households and businesses some of the highest energy prices in Europe while boasting about profits and posting record profits. It is obscene and extremely unfair on households and businesses that are struggling to survive and yet it goes on and on. That is partly why I am broadly in support of this Private Members' Bill, which offers a focused and practical measure that finally gives the Commission for the Regulation of Utilities the statutory tools it has long lacked, including monthly price and margin transparency, proper oversight of hedging practices, stronger powers to address anticompetitive behaviour and an explicit legal duty to protect consumers from unfair pricing. However, two critical deficits remain within the Bill. Unless they are rectified, the Bill risks becoming yet another well-meaning statute that delivers little on the ground or in reality. The first deficit is that, as far as I can see, the Bill contains no automatic consumer relief mechanisms. Monitoring margins is useful but, when suppliers' profits surge, the CRU still cannot impose or mandate automatic rebates. The second deficit is that the legislation hands the CRU and the Minister broad discretionary powers but does not guarantee resourcing. We have seen this before. We only have to look at the unfair trading practices legislation and the Agri-Food Regulator. Both were launched as new oversight mechanisms to protect farmers and small suppliers but, because the underpinning legislation and the powers granted were not sufficiently robust, they have failed to deliver real and meaningful change. New institutions without real teeth simply become expensive talking shops and we have had more than enough of those.

Sentiment score: -0.02