What is the Taoiseach doing to ensure that the big oil companies do not simply pocket the excise duty cut? Reports are already coming in of petrol stations increasing their prices for petrol and diesel today before the cut. Around the corner from where I live, one petrol station increased the price of diesel by 15 cent at lunchtime today. Presumably, then, the station will reduce the price tonight by 15 cent, having made a tidy profit. The petrol being sold now was bought some time ago at lower prices, so the companies are already taking advantage of the crisis to make some bumper profits while they can. We welcome the cut to the rate of excise duty and we have pushed for a cut in VAT as well, but fundamentally what we need, at least alongside these measures, are price controls. The Taoiseach spoke earlier again and again about how we are in wartime. Under the Consumer Protection Act 2007, the Government has the power to bring in price controls. We need them for petrol, home heating oil, gas, electricity and so on.

The Consumer Protection and Competition Commission exists to pursue any companies breaking the law, price gouging or behaving in an anti-competitive manner. Equally, as I said earlier, this is an internationally-traded commodity and we must take that reality on board in respect of price caps or price controls, which have never worked in the past as a mechanism to deal with situations like this.