On Saturday, 7 October, a few days before the budget is announced, the Cost of Living Coalition will hold a national demonstration. Assembling at Parnell Square at 1 p.m., trade unionists, student unions, pensioners' groups, housing groups, anti-poverty activists and many more will march to the Dáil to demand urgent action to deal with the crushing impact of the cost-of-living, housing and homelessness crises. People will join the demonstration for many reasons. I urge anybody who is affected by or angry about the cost-of-living and housing crises to do so. People will be there because of homelessness, unaffordable rents, unaffordable childcare, mortgage interest hikes, grocery price hikes and much more.

I will concentrate today on one aspect of the cost-of-living crisis, namely, the shocking figures produced this week by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, which show that an incredible 11% of electricity customers, or 256,000 people, are now in arrears. That number is up by 72,000 since January this year. Equally incredible is that 168,000 gas customers are now in arrears, which is an increase of 24,000 since the beginning of the year. One in five gas customers is in arrears. The figures also show that disconnections have jumped dramatically since the lifting of the moratorium on disconnections. In April, only 15 electricity customers, although that is too many, were cut off. The number had gone up to 132 by May and to 145 by June. After 21 gas customers were cut off in April, the number jumped to 132 and then jumped again, in June, to 145. This is happening during the summer months, not the winter months into which we are facing.

The Tánaiste may say in his response that some of the energy companies have started to reduce their prices, but the price reductions in gas and electricity are a drop in the ocean compared with what has happened. In the past two years, electricity prices have more than doubled - a more than 100% increase - to the approximately €2,000 a year people are now paying. According to the household energy price index, people in this country are paying 80% more than the EU average for electricity and gas. They are paying over €900 a year more than the average across the rest of Europe. All of this is happening while we have seen a profits bonanza at the ESB and the gas companies, with their profits jumping to absolutely staggering levels.

Will the Tánaiste immediately reintroduce the moratorium on disconnections as we head into the winter months? Second, will he introduce price caps on energy in order that people pay energy costs that are least down to the level of the rest of Europe, rather than double the prices in the rest of Europe, as they currently are?

On the Deputy's overall point on the cost of living, over the past 12 months, the Government has responded swiftly and strongly to cushion the impact of prices on households, businesses and farmers, with supports of up to €12 billion. That is not an inconsiderable sum of money by any yardstick. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, found that the one-off measures we announced as part of budget 2023 insulated most households from rising energy prices last winter. I acknowledge that people are under pressure and the cost of living is a big issue for them. However, over the past year, our measures supported people, particularly those on fixed incomes, including pensioners, carers and people living with a disability. There were eight lump-sum payments in 2023 alone: the double child benefit payment; the autumn double payment; the €400 lump-sum fuel allowance payment; the €500 lump-sum payment to families receiving the working family payment; the €500 lump-sum payment to people in receipt of disability allowance, the blind pension or the invalidity pension; the €200 lump-sum payment to people in receipt of the living alone allowance; the €500 lump-sum payment to carers; and the Christmas double payment. I could go on. The weekly social welfare pension rates went up by €12. There were three €200 energy credits over the winter months. There were many interventions. Those interventions were unprecedented because we had an unprecedented energy crisis, caused mainly, as we are well aware, by both post-Covid supply and demand problems and the war in Ukraine. We have further problems now with the reduction in production by some of the big oil producers, which is causing a significant rise in the cost of fuel. The Government will examine the cost-of-living issues in the context of the forthcoming budget. In essence, a combination of the budget and a cost-of-living package will again endeavour and work to ease pressure on people, especially in the winter months and in respect of pressure they are coming under as a result of price increases.

The Deputy mentioned housing. The bottom line is that 2022 saw the highest level of delivery of new-build social housing since 1975. More than 10,000 social homes were delivered last year and we are heading towards an even larger number this year. A total of 26,000 social houses alone have been provided since the Government came to office. That timeframe includes the Covid period, when construction was suspended on a number of occasions. There has been significant progress on housing but we have a long way to go and more to do in that regard.

When it comes to the specifics of what we will do, we are not going to go the Liz Truss way or the way of the British Conservative Party in how it dealt with the price increase crisis last year. We saw what happened there. However, we will work to alleviate pressures on the public, including people in need as a result of price increases.

The Tánaiste listing the Government's so-called achievements will come as cold comfort to the hundreds of thousands of people who are in arrears. If its measures were so effective, why are 256,000 electricity customers and one in five gas customers in arrears? This is before we head into the winter months. People who are in that situation face a terrifying prospect. If it is all about the war in Ukraine, how does the Tánaiste explain electricity and gas prices here being almost double what they are in the rest of Europe? I will explain it for him. The ESB's profits jumped 30% at the beginning of this year to an incredible €676 million, which is 100% more than it made two years previous to that. It is the same picture for SSE Airtricity, Energia and so on, all of which have seen their profits go through the roof. What will the Tánaiste do about this profiteering? He did not answer my question. Will he reintroduce immediately the moratorium on disconnections? Why can the Government not bring down unit energy prices to the same level as those in the rest of Europe?

The ESB is a State company. I take it the Deputy is a strong supporter of State companies. If he had his way, he would have more State companies across the board.

I would if they were like they to used to be, with proper energy prices.

We use the dividend to enable us to introduce the measures to alleviate the pressure. We have taken measures in respect of excess profits at the energy companies, as the Deputy knows. We have taken those measures and we expect revenues to come in, some before the end of the year, including the windfall tax, and more next year, which we will reallocate back into measures to reduce the pressure on the public.

We will take measures over the coming months to try to ease pressure on people due to energy price increases. That will manifest in the budget and the cost-of-living package, the specifics of which will be announced by the Minister for Finance and the Minister for Public Expenditure, National Development Plan Delivery and Reform. The Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, was very clear - it is not me saying it - that we did cushion the most vulnerable and the three to four lowest income deciles in the State. That is independent and objective data and analysis.