Energy Prices
Dail Éireann — 2025-12-18
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Pa Daly (SF), Kerry

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?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2025-12-18/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:29+00:00
Sitting date: 2025-12-18