Wholesale electricity prices fell sharply last month by 52%. The temporary business energy support scheme is great. It gives businesses up to €10,000 in supports where their electricity costs increase by 50% and they get 40% back. These wholesale electricity price reductions are not being passed on to the end consumer. We are facing into a very cold spell and a severe winter when people will be using more electricity. Has the Government had an opportunity to engage with the regulator to examine the constructs of the contracts with the energy providers to see whether we can pass on the reduction? There was a 52% reduction in wholesale electricity prices last month and 27% the previous month. We must see a reduction for the end consumer particularly as we face this winter period.

I thank Deputy O'Donnell who has raised a question in which many consumers throughout the country will be interested on feeding through reduced wholesale gas prices to the domestic electricity and gas prices charged to households and businesses in Ireland. As the Deputy knows, pricing is a matter for the companies themselves. He can be assured the Minister, Deputy Ryan, the Department and the CRU are in ongoing engagement on this issue and with the companies themselves, while recognising the fact that setting the prices is a commercial matter for the companies themselves. In many cases we are dealing with futures contracts that have been entered into.

In some cases, the high wholesale prices were locked in for a period. It might, therefore, take a while for the reduced prices to come through at consumer level but we all want to see that happen as quickly as possible.