I welcome Councillor Frankie Daly, from Limerick, and his guests to the Visitors Gallery. It is nice to see guests back here again.

Irish electricity prices are the fourth most expensive in the EU. They are 23% above the EU average. Only Germany, Denmark and Belgium beat us. It is price gouging and it is a despicable attack on all our citizens, who feel hopeless and hapless. Inflation, as we note today, is at a 22-year high. The Government's inaction is startling. The issue is affecting every sector of Irish society, including farmers, business owners, families and charity organisations. Everyone is feeling the pinch. It is totally unsustainable. Our Government owns 95% of the ESB, which made a profit of €200 million last year and paid a dividend to the Minister for Finance of €120 million. Swift action is needed by the Government — it does not seem to be coming — to insist that the ESB cease ripping off consumers. A price cap on profits is needed and the Government can no longer bury its head in the sand. I plead with the Tánaiste. We cannot do this to our people.

Does the Government believe a State-owned electricity company should be making record profits when most consumers can barely afford to heat their homes? Some cannot afford to do so. Will the Government use its power and influence over how the ESB is gouging to reverse the latest price hikes? We have heard all the Irish electricity suppliers, including Electric Ireland, blame rising natural gas prices globally for record increases. However, the facts do not support this contention. For instance, figures emerged last October showing that many ESB power plants earned profits of between €132,000 and €138,000 per hour at different times during July and September of last year. Generators that I have mentioned were trying to buy electricity from the ESB.

Household electricity costs rose by 70% in 2021. This was before any mention of the desperate and despicable war in Ukraine, so the Government should stop hiding behind that Trojan horse. This is a perfect storm that the Government has created. We are blaming everything on the Ukraine conflict, as horrific as it is.

Bord Gáis recently announced further hikes of 27%. It has already been estimated that those hikes have added between €1,000 and €1,500 to the bill in every person's home. This is just not sustainable. I have raised this matter on numerous occasions and have written to the Taoiseach about it. I might as well have written to Santy Claus or the Easter Bunny, who is coming next week, for all the good it did me. Again, I urge the Government in the strongest possible terms to take swift action and direct the ESB to stop ripping off customers and place a cap on all profits generated in Ireland. This is necessary to ensure immediate reductions for all electricity customers. Direct Government intervention is needed. The Government should not stand idly by and promise something in October. It is not doing anything. It is supposed to represent the people and look after their interests but it is not. It is allowing the ESB to do what it wants.

It is absolutely the case that the ESB is a very profitable State-owned company. It generates very significant profits each year. It may well be the case that it will generate larger profits this year than in previous years. It is important to put on the record of the House what it does with its profits. Its profits form part of its balance sheet. With them, it invests in the grid to make sure we can bring power to all parts of the country and empower job creation and economic development. It also invests in renewables, which is the long-term solution to the energy-security problems and price instability we have. The profits do get reinvested. A good chunk of the profits come back to the State. They come back to the Exchequer through the corporation tax on profits that the company pays and the dividend to the State. We use that money. It goes into the Government's coffers. We use it to do things like increasing the fuel allowance and taking the €200 off people's electricity bills.

A three-card trick.

That is where the money goes. It is open to the Government to take a bigger dividend if it sees the ESB is making windfall or excessive profits and give it back to people, be it in the form of the fuel allowance or further reductions to bills.

I salute all the ESB crews and acknowledge their hard work, especially during storms or outages. Where is the Commission for Regulation of Utilities? What is its role? Is there just a fancy brass plaque on the wall, posh sheets and a board of members of a quango? It is standing idly by. It is useless, toothless and fruitless. That is what they are. The Tánaiste said "if it sees the ESB..." Everyone can see the ESB is fleecing people. How long is the Tánaiste going to wait to find out? You try to raise a family and you will see.

Low-usage charges must also be examined and scrapped by the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. Those who are making every effort to cut their electricity usage are being charged more for doing so. The Government really wants to penalise and punish the people. It is doing it every hour of every day and every second of every minute. It is punishing the people. The Tánaiste just said the Government gets the money back in from the ESB and spends it. What does it do? It gave Mr. Holohan a job in Trinity, with €187,000, that he never applied for, that no one advertised and that he is probably not fit for, and Paul Reid and many more people. People are sick and tired of the monkeys on their backs. The monkeys are sitting opposite — I do not mean anything personal to anyone — and the people are sick and tired of being harangued and downtrodden. They are going to rise up because they will not put up with this. They cannot afford to live.

We should not question the undoubted capacity and abilities of Dr. Tony Holohan.

A great job. A special job for him.

Let us not-----

Well, I question it.

Let us not cast any aspersions-----

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for his advice but I question it.

-----on the man's ability.

A job for life and a pension as well.

Fundamentally, what drives the price of electricity in Ireland is the price of gas internationally. We make most of our electricity from gas and that is what determines the price point. The wholesale price of gas, which used to be 60p per therm, is now nearly £3 per therm. Therefore, we have seen an almost-fivefold increase in the cost of gas in international markets. Thankfully, we are not seeing a fivefold increase in electricity prices.

Not far away from it.

We would be having a very different conversation if we were in that position today. What we see-----

It is coming.

-----across Europe, including in Northern Ireland and Britain, are price increases in the region of 30% to 40%. Unfortunately, Ireland is no different. We are not immune from the dramatic rise in the price of gas that is happening internationally. We totally acknowledge the impact it is having on household budgets and the cost of doing business, and that is why we are trying to act. People will see the €200 coming off their bill-----

Minus VAT.

We have reduced excise. It is in addition to VAT. It €200 when the VAT is included, to be exact. Of course, we are examining other measures and things that we might do to help in the future.