I begin by welcoming developments for peace in Gaza, as I know we all do, and hope we will see the start of a path to real peace for all in the Middle East.

I think we can agree that we are all living in the real world. In the real world, it is a good thing that we are having a debate about energy prices. It is a good thing that we are debating the cost of energy. However, the "cost of energy" is a misnomer because the prices being inflicted by energy companies on households are reflecting practices of gross profiteering. They are far detached from real costs. Energy providers are not behaving as though their product is a public good and the true cost is being paid by hard-pressed families and households, people who are toiling through a cost-of-living crisis and who saw the budget come and go last week with, it has to be said, almost no reprieve or relief for them or their household finances. That is happening while executives at the energy companies are reaping record rewards. I remind the Taoiseach that Flogas hiked its prices by 7% after its parent company recorded operating profits of €820 million. Bord Gáis, after a year in which it made €75 million in profit, is adding €218 per year to the average bill. Pinergy added almost 10% despite its revenues having increased by nearly 40% last year. Energia is increasing its electricity prices by more than 12% after recording €154 million in profits last year. I am reading this from a script because it has to be read into the record. Pushing more households into fuel poverty is a high price to pay for what is clearly the hoarding of wealth by energy companies.

Yesterday and today, the Taoiseach has pointed out that energy credits are pocketed by energy companies and that is why they needed to go, but his analysis misses the point about the support that households get from such credits. The reality is that in last week's budget, the Government pulled the rug from beneath thousands of struggling families as winter bites. It did not use the time during which those measures were in place to bring in more sustainable supports. That is why we are seeing so many households in arrears. That is the reality.

The Labour Party's support for targeted energy credits is grounded in reality and the need to support ordinary households that are being punished for the failure of the Government to bring down energy prices. The Government was, it seemed, well able last week to ignore economic advice when it came to tax breaks for developers and, indeed, for a VAT cut for one sector, which will cost €681 million, without any evidence that it will save a single job or independent business. Yet when it comes to energy credits, a lifeline for people, it seems the Government is suddenly a slave to undergraduate economics. It says it wants more efficient solutions but we in Labour always offer constructive solutions. Deputy Ahern has pointed out that under the EU electricity and gas directives, price regulation is allowed in exceptional circumstances - for example, to protect vulnerable customers. Why is the Government not using that mechanism to rein in the greedy energy companies? Why is it not using section 10 of the Electricity Regulation Act 1999? Will the Taoiseach take the powers available to him to help struggling households with energy bills this winter?

I understand the pressure on households and families as a result of energy price increases. We are living through a period of huge issues around energy, particularly since Russia invaded Ukraine. The Government has intervened, particularly at the height of that crisis, in a substantial way. However, retail prices are influenced by several factors, as the Deputy knows, including wholesale energy prices and supplier hedging. In Ireland, our long-standing reliance on fossil fuels, specifically gas, for electricity generation has been a driver of higher energy costs. That is a reality that the Deputy would have to acknowledge. It is a fundamental problem with our energy mix. Our location, as an isolated island, and our low density and widely dispersed population, also influence prices and have necessitated substantial investment in the grid.

The programme for Government committed to an independent review into the speed and level of pass-through from wholesale prices to retail prices, with an additional assessment of the overall price dynamics and an overall focus on the competitiveness of our economy. The Minister established the national energy affordability task force to identify, assess and implement measures that will enhance energy affordability for households and businesses while delivering key renewable commitments and protecting security of supply and economic stability. That task force will shortly publish an interim report and will consider measures to support customers throughout 2025 and 2026 and the forthcoming winter. More crucially, it will provide recommendations in respect of structural reforms that can be undertaken to reduce the cost of energy and electricity. There have to be structural reforms. I know, politically speaking, that everybody wants to have their usual soundbites and have a go at this and that, but how prices in the energy market are determined is fundamentally a structural issue.

The Minister will meanwhile continue to engage with the companies. We in the Government will take measures to protect people, particularly those on the lowest incomes. For those on the highest incomes, the Deputy is saying we should continue with the energy credits.

I said "targeted".

They would be targeted.

The Deputy is not saying targeted.

We did say "targeted".

We said that in our budget.

Deputy Bacik will have an opportunity for a rebuttal in a moment.

The Deputy did not say it there. That word was not used there. She is to a certain extent playing to the Gallery.

She is not playing to the Gallery.

I do acknowledge the issue. The Deputy mentioned VAT reductions. It costs to keep VAT at 9%. That has been factored in for the next five years. We should keep it at 9% for gas and electricity. There is a problem, a huge issue, here. Over the next five years, we have to invest triple what we invested in the grid in the last three years. There is going to be more investment in the grid. That simply has to happen to guarantee energy security and supply.

Now is Deputy Bacik's opportunity.

I absolutely reject the idea that we are playing to the Gallery. With respect, what I have heard from the Taoiseach does not do anything for the 300,000 households in arrears on their electricity bills or the 185,000 in arrears on their gas bills.

The Taoiseach is talking about reviews and task forces. I do agree structural reform is needed because what we are seeing is that the liberalisation of energy markets has failed. Competition has not delivered fairer prices for consumers. Energy companies are not competing with each other to reduce prices for consumers; rather, a price hike by one seems to be giving an excuse for a price hike to the rest. We do need structural reforms, but where are they? Why are we not seeing, for example, a levy of the profits of energy companies where they are not reducing prices for consumers? I read out the record profits the energy companies are reaping. Why are we not seeing action by the Government to target them? Why are we not seeing the sort of action I have listed that is possible under powers the Government has? Crucially, why are we not seeing more action on a moratorium on disconnections? For vulnerable consumers, there is a moratorium-----

Thank you, Deputy.

-----from November to March. Why not ban disconnections for all households for five months over winter-----

Thank you, Deputy. The Taoiseach to respond.

-----as a stopgap measure while we are bringing in structural-----

Thank you, Deputy, your time is up.

The Minister is working with the companies to help families who are in difficulty, and in particular those who are in arrears, by establishing hardship funds and making sure there will not be disconnections. That is over and above the measures we have taken to increase the fuel allowance for the working family payment cohort and to increase it more generally. The Minister has engaged with the companies in respect of those who are in arrears and particularly in terms of having no disconnections throughout the winter period.