A warm welcome to the visitors from Claregalway and the people from the United States. The ambassador is also most welcome. Cuirim fáilte rompu go léir.

More than a million households will be hit with big hikes in their electricity bills this month. This morning we have further proof of what we have been saying for a long time, that energy companies are brazenly ripping off customers in Ireland. Irish energy bills are three times higher than the wholesale cost. That is price gouging, plain and simple. It is a rip-off, plain and simple.

A new report from the International Energy Agency reveals that these companies are refusing to pass on the drop in wholesale price to their customers. Big energy companies are making bumper profits on the backs of working households, and hundreds of thousands of those already cannot afford to pay their bills. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael see this energy rip-off happening, but they stand back and do nothing. They refuse to take on the energy companies and they vote down our proposals to get energy costs under control. Worse still, in last week's budget, they removed energy credits from hard-pressed households. Their deference to the energy companies is, of course, in keeping with the terrible budget the Government announced last week, a budget that looks after those at the top and leaves ordinary workers worse off. That reality was confirmed by the ESRI on Friday.

The Taoiseach's suggestion at the weekend that people do not get the budget, that they need to look at it from a different angle, took some cheek. People do not have to bend over backwards to see what is staring them in the face: no break on their income tax, no increase in the renters' credit, no cut in childcare fees, no increase in child benefit and no cost-of-living package, but the Government could find the money for sweetheart tax breaks for developers, big landlords and the banks, while all its big election promises disappeared like snow off a ditch.

The budget was written as though the cost-of-living crisis was a thing of the past, but at the very time it was announced, households heard that they face the biggest price squeeze in 18 months. It is not just electricity. Households are hit with hikes in food prices, in their health insurance premiums, and instead of working to get costs down for households, the Government hiked up fuel prices, student fees and the local property tax. There is no end in sight. The Government knew all of this when it signed off on this budget. It knew that people would be hammered with big electricity bills and soaring prices, and yet it chose to abandon them anyway. Tá comhlachtaí fuinnimh ag feannadh teaghlaigh le hardaithe móra sna billí leictreachais. Thréig buiséad an Rialtais oibrithe an uair seo chun aire a thabhairt dóibh siúd atá ar bharr an dréimire.

Winter now approaches and people will leave their lights and heating on for longer. The rip-off bills they receive will be a body blow for families. The Government has done nothing to help pay one single bill or to ease the pressure on households. People have known for a long time that they are being gouged and ripped off on their energy bills. The Government now has further proof of that fact. Will the Taoiseach set out clearly what he will do to end this rip-off?

Ní aontaím leis an Teachta in aon chor. Rinne an Rialtas an-chuid i mbuiséad na seachtaine seo caite, go háirithe chun cabhair agus tacaíocht a thabhairt do dhaoine a bhfuil ag fulaingt faoi láthair. Admhaím go bhfuil costais mhaireachtála, go háirithe ó thaobh cúrsaí bia de, ag dul in airde. Thug an méid a rinneamar cabhair agus tacaíocht do na daoine is boichte agus na daoine atá ar na hioncaim is ísle sa tír. Níl aon amhras ach go ndearnamar sin.

When we look at the budget across the board, it focused on those on the lowest incomes and also on investing in public services and infrastructure.

All of us in society benefit from investment in infrastructure, in education services and special education services, in health services and in more housing. Housing is the biggest single issue facing us, and the budget puts extraordinary resources into housing on top of what was provided in the national development plan. Most young people, irrespective of where they are in the income brackets, want either to be able to afford a house to buy or to rent or, if their incomes are within a certain bracket, to get a social house. We provided enough resources for over 10,000 social houses to be built next year and additional social houses to be leased or acquired. That is the point I am making. I did not say anybody got it wrong or anything like that.

To come back to the ESRI, I would argue its methodology is somewhat flawed-----

Do we want a serious debate or not? Under the SWITCH model, if we index to inflation, the lowest income deciles benefit substantially more than anybody else, by up to 4% or 5%. If we index to wage growth, it is a different story. I am more into deprivation and consistent poverty-----

Sorry, in terms of methodology, I am into arresting and dealing with those who are genuinely suffering from deprivation and consistent poverty, rather than the idea of relative poverty, which is a moveable feast, particularly with an economy that has been growing for ten years. We either have serious discussions about these things or we do not. The Deputy just goes herd-like after the latest headline. That is all she does. She latches onto the latest headline and off she goes. I can recall that during the energy crisis, the proposals she came up with would have undermined our financial credibility and would have been a boon to the oil companies and the fossil fuel companies.

That is not true.

She wanted to underpin them. If we keep on doing energy credits, where is the pressure on the companies?

The pressure is on families.

The Deputy is suggesting that we keep bailing out the companies-----

One voice, please.

-----and keep underpinning the gouging. If the companies think there is going to be €200, €500 or €1,000 every year, that will get factored in, without question.

A bit like the help-to-buy for the property developers.

What is important in terms of the energy companies is the more fundamental issue facing the market, which is the methodology by which the European Single Market works in terms of how prices are determined for gas and the margin of pricing or pay-as-clear system. That is the fundamental problem. The Minister has established a national group to look at the regulatory framework governing the pricing of energy. That has to happen in tandem with Europe. The Iberian peninsula did something on this because of the high proportion of renewables in their mix. We need more renewable energy, but in the interim we are totally reliant on the importation of gas - not totally but almost 80%.

Thank you, Taoiseach.

That is one of the fundamental issues because gas sets the price across Europe. That is the reality.

Tá a fhios ag gach duine nach bhfuil rud ar bith sa bhuiséad do dhaoine, teaghlaigh ná oibrithe atá ag fulaingt. Is í sin an fhírinne. I have asked a question about price gouging and ending the rip-off by energy companies. As usual, the Taoiseach has come up with nothing. His budget has made a bad situation worse for working people. I know he is not a great listener - God knows, his backbenchers know that all too well - but he might afford to the general public the courtesy of actually hearing what he is being told loudly and clearly: workers and families are struggling and struggling hard. The ESRI has confirmed that the Government has left them worse off after its budget. The specific issue I want to know from the Taoiseach is as regards energy costs, which are being hiked again and again. A rip-off is under way. Wholesale energy prices are down more than 70% since 2022. In countries all across Europe, that reduction is felt by consumers, but not here in Ireland. As the Government that took away energy credits, I want the Taoiseach to set out what it is doing to stop this gouging and to end this rip-off. Please answer that question.

Hear, hear.

We know that energy prices in Ireland are high. There are a number of factors. The fundamental factor is the broader regulatory framework that governs the pricing of energy, gas being the issue. Gas sets the price.

We are at a disadvantage in that respect, as we are in respect of the dispersed nature of our grid. We have the eighth highest electricity prices in the EU 27 when adjusted for purchasing power parity. That is where we are right now and the Minister has established a national energy affordability task force to deal with this issue and identify-----

Did the Economic and Social Research Institute, ESRI, tell the Taoiseach that?

No, the ESRI used a different methodology from the one we used last week in terms of how we utilised the-----

Rather than the Micheál methodology.

Deputy, please allow the answer.

You are not poor; you are just not using the right methodology.

This is well known.

It is a strange methodology.

The Deputy is clearly not listening. She interrupts all the time, as do her colleagues.

The time is almost up.

I always remember the Deputy's intervention during the energy crisis. It was the Liz Truss intervention.

That is not true.

There is an energy crisis in homes now, Taoiseach.

Sinn Féin copied and pasted the Liz Truss intervention but thanks be to God we did not accept its proposals-----

Thank you, Taoiseach. Your time is up.

-----because look at what happened to Prime Minister Truss and to the markets and everything else in the UK at the time.

What is the Taoiseach doing to end the rip-off?

Deputy Bacik of the Labour Party.