D'fhógair an Coimisiún Eorpach inné gurb é an Stát seo an stát is daoire san Aontas Eorpach. De réir mar a leanann oibrithe agus teaghlaigh ag streachailt leis an ghéarchéim costais maireachtála, leanann an Rialtas ag teip ar ghnáthdhaoine na tíre seo.

Yesterday, the European Commission published figures confirming for workers and families what they have known for a long time, namely that we live in a rip-off Republic. The Commission confirmed that this State is the most expensive place to live in the European Union. It is 46% higher than the European average. Not only this, but the gap has been growing since 2015.

On energy costs, we are the second most expensive in the European Union. We have the most expensive health costs in the EU, which are a staggering 82% above the European average. This is what households are dealing with when they continue to struggle under the biggest cost-of-living crisis in a generation.

Figures that were released earlier this week show that Irish living standards have fallen further behind other European countries, continuing a downward trend since Fine Gael took power nearly a decade ago. In fact, we are now at the bottom half of the European league table. This is the economic performance of Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and the Green Party, while workers and families are being fleeced by the highest prices in Europe and getting less and less for their hard-earned money. They work hard but the economy is not working for them.

That is the Government's legacy. That is the Government's failure. It exposes the growing gap between the economic success story that Government Ministers like to tell and the financial reality facing hard-working and hard-pressed families and households. The Government’s failure to convert the economic gains that they celebrate into better living standards for our people is clear. The housing crisis was created and made worse by Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, there is a worsening state of our health service and there are sky-high living costs.

These failures continue to hit the pockets and the quality of life of workers and families. This drift is now growing. It is a growing threat to our economy. It is impacting, as I am sure the Minister has heard, the ability of firms to hire and retain workers. It is influencing their investment decisions for the future. Nowhere is the rip-off that workers and families face more evident than in the extortionate energy bills they have now been paying for months.

Despite a drastic fall in wholesale prices, energy bills remain sky-high. In the 12 months to March, consumer prices rose by 72%. During the same period, wholesale energy prices decreased by 50%. Indeed, yesterday, the Central Bank found that while electricity prices in Europe have fallen dramatically in recent months, Irish prices remain stubbornly high. This is a cause of real concern.

I sent a request to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, on behalf of Sinn Féin calling on it to undertake an intensive supervision of the prices that energy companies are charging their customers. This is key to ensuring that workers and families are not being fleeced, that there is fairness in the market and ultimately that prices come down for workers, families and business customers.

On 1 March, when the Taoiseach was challenged about these costs, he said he would take action if the companies did not pass on savings. Last week, he made a complete U-turn and he said that energy prices will remain high this coming winter. The Minister’s time for sitting on his hands is over. Families, customers and businesses are being fleeced. Will the Minister support Sinn Féin's call for the energy regulator to take this matter seriously and carry out a proper, intrusive investigation into the prices that Irish customers are being charged? Has the Government called in the energy companies to discuss this matter with them?

First, I want to contest the Deputy’s central thesis that Ireland is some kind of a basket case. That is not the case. He spoke of how we talk about the story of economic success. That is a real story. Some 2.6 million people at work is not a fantasy. They are real people, they include the Deputy’s constituents and they are all over the country. Unemployment is less than 4% at this point in time. The economy is continuing to grow and is among the fastest-growing economies over the last number of years in Europe. We have budget surpluses because we are managing the country’s finances well. That gives us policy options we can deliberate on over the weeks and months ahead.

The Deputy spoke about the real-life experiences of people. Those are what we are all here to try to improve. When I look at health, I see better outcomes. I see longer life expectancies.

Hear, hear.

Of course, we see challenges every single day in our health system. We have recruited approximately 20,000 more people in health since the beginning of the pandemic. The Deputy spoke about living standards. Living standards in Ireland over the last number of decades have improved, without question. We have seen a reduction in inequality in Ireland over that period of time as well. Our investment in education is held up across the world as being of the highest standard.

Those points are important by means of context. When you talk about price levels in Ireland relative to elsewhere in Europe, of course there is a story there. There is also a story in the fact that we were held up in another report earlier this week as being the second most competitive economy among a large number of economies that were examined as part of that particular study.

Of course, incomes in Ireland, as the Deputy well knows, are well above the EU average. That also has to be taken into account. That being said, there is no question that inflation has had a really negative impact on the people we all represent. As a Government, we have sought to respond in the best way that we could. We brought in approximately €12 billion of additional measures since the beginning of last year to help households, to reduce the burden of income tax, to increase social welfare, to bring in a whole range of one-off payments, to introduce four different electricity credits, and to help the business sector to meet the costs it is facing in the form of an exceptional energy support scheme. The Government will be doing more. We are now finalising the summer economic statement, which will set out the overall budgetary strategy for the autumn budget. It will lay out the amounts of resources we have available.

Energy costs are a key issue for households and we acknowledge that. We need to see the dramatic reductions in wholesale energy costs passing through to consumers more quickly. We need to see consumers at a retail level benefiting from those reductions. Wholesale electricity prices decreased by more than 16% in the last monthly data that are available. Between May 2022 and May 2023, electricity costs actually came down by 26%. I think the Deputy was quoting figures on gas costs, which had even greater rates of reduction.

It is my view that we have not to date had an adequate explanation for the delay in the pass through of those reductions. We all understand there is complexity. We understand there is a lag. We also understand futures contracts, hedging and the instruments that commercial companies enter into, but that said, there is undoubtedly scope over the weeks and the months ahead for the energy companies to reduce the prices that consumers are being charged. I know that the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, and his Department, are actively engaging and meeting with the companies to understand fully those details and complexities and to make the case for a reduction in the prices that the consumers we represent are currently facing.

The Minister may not like the picture that I presented, but it was based on European Commission stats and facts. We are the most expensive country in which to live in the European Union. I am sure the Minister does not dispute that. We have got the most expensive health costs in the European Union - 82% higher than the European average. In energy costs, we are the second most expensive in the European Union. The Minister should not get me started about housing, rent or indeed mobile phone and communications, where Ireland is again top of the league. We are living in a very expensive State.

One of the biggest rip-offs that is happening at the minute is in terms of energy costs. The Minister talks about the future and over the coming months. It is the same stuff that the Taoiseach, Deputy Varadkar, talked about in March before he made a U-turn and then told everybody to expect higher energy costs right through the winter. These costs should be down by now, despite hedging. We have seen wholesale energy costs reduce since March of last year, and the energy companies have been increasing prices by 72% during that period, yet wholesale energy prices have come down by 50% over the same period. We need an investigation into what is happening to energy costs. We have seen the Central Bank point out very clearly in its quarterly bulletin-----

Gabhaim buíochas leis an Teachta.

-----I will finish on this point – that the rest of Europe has seen its energy costs reduce and come back to a level with a bit of normality, yet we are still sky-high.

I call on the Minister to respond.

Not one domestic company has reduced its energy costs.

I thank the Deputy.

Will the Minister support an investigation-----

We are way over time.

-----by the Commission for Energy Regulation into what is happening in terms of these companies?

We are way over time. I ask for the Deputy's co-operation.

We have statutory bodies that this House has empowered through legislation to carry out certain functions, and when it comes to ensuring that we have a competitive marketplace generally and that there are no anti-competitive practices. We have the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission. It has examined the retail sector, for example, and it has not stood up some of the charges that have been made by the Opposition on the level of competition in that sector. It has extensive powers. We have the energy regulator as well, which also has extensive powers, but we as a Government do not set prices. We are not responsible for energy pricing, but we of course have responsibility for the overall environment within which these prices are being set. We absolutely have an obligation to call out where we see it that there is a justification for a greater pass through to the consumers at a retail level of the dramatic reductions that there have been at wholesale level. I have no doubt they will come, but they need to come quickly because it should not fall on taxpayers to have to step in and support households who are paying higher prices than the market justifies at this time.

Will the Government support an investigation?