Departmental Strategies
Dail Éireann — 2026-03-03
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Paul Murphy (PBP), Dublin South-West

War is a racket. It is an opportunity for many profiteering companies and individuals to try to rip people off. With Trump's new reckless, illegal, criminal, imperialist war in the Middle East, energy prices are going to rise even higher. In some cases, they already have, so the cost of home heating oil has gone up €80 since last Friday, for which there is no justification. That oil would already have been bought before the bombing started. The Taoiseach said earlier that he was going to raise this price gouging with the Minister for energy and has asked the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission to examine any unfair pricing practices. This is like "Back to the Future". We heard all of this when the cost-of-living crisis started five years ago. Ultimately, the Government refused to do anything at all. Report after report seemingly vindicated energy companies and supermarkets, claiming they are not profiteering when it is obvious that they are. The Taoiseach has the power to introduce price controls. Will he use that power?

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-03-03/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:02+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-03-03