Some 300,000 people are in arrears on their electricity bill with 187,000 of them in long-term arrears. In October, the Taoiseach spoke about price-gouging by energy companies and since then, all we have seen is price hike after price hike. Staff of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, was on "Morning Ireland" today and advised people to shop around for their bills or to put their electricity on at cheaper times of the day. That is completely tone deaf when we are in a situation where people do not have enough money to turn their heating on to keep their house warm. Will the Taoiseach direct the regulator to conduct an investigation on price-gouging? It is long past time that retail companies were held to account for the extortionate prices they are charging people. We are going into another winter where people are really struggling to pay these bills. Will the Taoiseach do that?

Energy efficiency is always something that should be focused on. It should not be just dismissed as the Deputy potentially did there. I recall what supermarkets did during the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the terrible crisis we had at the time. They put doors on their fridges, a simple thing that saved massive amounts of energy and was money well spent. Prior to the crisis, it was whatever. What I mean by that is we do have to continue to fund retrofitting and energy efficiency.

On the CRU, the regulatory model is what we are examining right now. That is not a simple thing. It does need to be changed and the consumer is bearing the brunt of a lot of the investment. Again, it is the CRU, and the Minister has established an energy affordability task force. It has already published its first report. Some of that manifested in the budget decisions we took and we will be dealing with the overall framework, which is important.