Irish householders pay 40% more for electricity than the EU average, which comes to €480 more per year. On average, households owe €500 to their energy suppliers. The vast majority of them simply do not have that. Over 320,000 households are in arrears on their electricity bills and 180,000 are in arrears on their gas bills. This is scandalous. Irish people, when they can, always pay their bills. These figures demonstrate the scale of the rip-off that our Irish householders face. While Irish workers and families struggle in an ongoing cost-of-living crisis, energy companies are making obscene profits. Surely if the Government were concerned about the well-being of its citizens, it would step up and hold these energy companies to account. Instead, we get inaction and a hands-off approach, with citizens abandoned by the do-nothing Government across the Chamber from us. The Government is committed to the corporate bottom line as opposed to the well-being of its citizens. That is, unless there is general election in the offing. When that happens, course, energy credits are available. However, once the election ends, those supports conveniently disappear like snow off a ditch. Since the onset of war in Ukraine, we have warned that the regulator requires more power to get this escalation of prices under control. However, the Government has sat on this legislation for three years. It is an outrageous situation when we consider that Irish households pay ten times the network cost of data centres. In this State, 23% of electricity goes to data centres. That compares with an average of 2% across the EU. However, one Government policy after another has supported data centres rather than Irish households. This Bill offers an opportunity to hold these energy companies to account. It offers transparency through regulator reporting responsibilities. However, our do-nothing Government seems more than content to allow Irish householders pay more than their European counterparts. It seems determined to not rein in these companies. Irish consumers and families suffer, yet data centres and energy companies benefit from the Government inaction and a failure to hold them to account. With no election on the horizon, citizens are suffering through a cost-of-living in crisis while the Government sits back and watches.

Sentiment score: -0.05