100. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment the measures he is taking to enhance the power of the regulator to increase transparency in relation to the retail price of energy here; the steps he is taking to investigate and prevent price gouging, as the Taoiseach alleged is taking place (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [72871/25]
Sentiment score: 0.23
Before we start, it is no disrespect to the Ministers of State but is the senior Minister ever going to turn up? I presume there is a good reason for his absence.
Sentiment score: 0.04
Tá sé tuirseach traochta.
Sentiment score: 0.00
There seems to be a pattern but anyway. Irish households are being ripped off in their energy bills. Even the Taoiseach has acknowledged it. Last week at the joint committee, we were told that price gouging cannot be ruled out. The ESRI called for a fresh inquiry into our sky-high energy prices. We introduced legislation a few years ago to stop this, but we were ignored, and since then there are record numbers in arrears, price hikes across the board and vital supports such as energy credits withdrawn and ripped away. If even the Government is admitting that price gouging is taking place, why not do something about it, and stop the profiteering before taking away all the energy credits?
Sentiment score: 0.26
I thank the Minister of State for the reply. I agree to some extent with him that it is a commercial issue. Obviously all the energy companies have a responsibility to their shareholders not only to have the same amount of profit but to have an increased amount the following year and the year after that. I agree with the Minister of State that hedging is an issue. The Government can see that prices do not come down as quickly as they go up. He said that energy costs in Ireland are the 12th highest in Europe, but when other factors are stripped away we have some of the highest prices in Europe. As the Minister of State knows, household bills have doubled over the last five years. Nearly €2,000 extra is now paid by households compared to five years ago. These prices are not inevitable. They are not normal. Ireland is an outlier in this. The latest report from the International Energy Agency highlighted the gap between Ireland's wholesale prices and retail prices as being the largest in the world. We are paying a price for energy that is three times what it costs to produce. What is the Minister of State going to do to address it?
Sentiment score: 0.17
It certainly is not market failure for the energy companies because they are making huge profits. We have called since 2023 for a dedicated hedging monitoring unit so that the regulator can oversee and regulate hedging because the energy companies need to be held to account and to justify the increase in prices. The regulator must also treat energy as a public good. In the coming months, we are going to see an extra €1 tacked onto bills to invest in the grid. Price review 6 also has worrying price increases coming down the tracks. There will be more price increases for the renewable heat obligation, as well as the carbon tax, which the Minister of State's colleagues and supporters in government, the Healy-Rae brothers, opposed vehemently while in opposition, and now are flag bearers for the carbon tax since the last budget. What is the Minister of State going to do to protect households from the rising costs and to address the unfairness in how the costs are structured and levied?
Sentiment score: 0.44
102. Deputy Pa Daly asked the Minister for Climate, Energy and the Environment if he will report on the commitment in the programme for Government to “explore if legislation could be enacted to divert surplus renewable energy, that would otherwise be wasted, to homes in fuel poverty”; the progress that has been made on this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [72872/25]
Sentiment score: 0.22
Ireland is wasting over €400 million every year on surplus energy. The programme for Government says that legislation could be enacted to divert surplus renewable energy to homes that are in fuel poverty. The amount being wasted has jumped from over €250 million in 2023. I ask the Minister of State to outline a timeline for the delivery of the diversion of wasted energy to the households that need it the most.
Sentiment score: -0.30
I thank the Minister of State for the reply. As I said earlier, the figure for wasted energy was €250 million in 2023 but it is now almost half a billion euro. At the same time, hundreds of thousands of households are in debt and energy poverty has reached record levels. Approximately €1.3 million worth of energy has gone down the drain today. This would have heated 390 million water tanks but that 1.2 GW of power was lost forever. EnergyCloud has a model to divert this waste into a public good. It has a concept and case studies show that it would make a real difference to people's lives. The Government is making a political choice not to pursue this model. The Minister, nuair a thagainn sé ar ais, should at least acknowledge that the Government supports EnergyCloud. Then the necessary data can be prepared over the next six months in order to make progress and hit the ground running.
Sentiment score: 0.06
The reality is that there are difficulties with our grid, which is very constrained. Investment in the grid must take place, which the Minister of State mentioned in response to the previous question. However, the cost of that should not be borne by ordinary householders but by the State and by larger energy consumers. A big part of the problem is that data centres are taking up almost one third of Ireland's energy. The surge in energy demand from data centres has already led to housing not being delivered. One such example was in Portlaoise, where multiple families were told they could not move into their homes because an energy connection simply was not available. Similarly, investments that were intended for housing have, instead, been diverted to data centres because there is a first-come, first-served approach. That has to change. The energy regulator must be given the power to deal with that and to prioritise major grid infrastructure for major housing developments as opposed to giving all of our extra renewable energy directly to data centres. Will the Government commit today to moving away from the first-come, first-served model for grid connections and ensure that they are prioritised on a need basis?
Sentiment score: 0.15