Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is to ask the five largest energy companies in Ireland to further reduce gas and electricity prices for customers at a specially convened meeting in Government Buildings on Wednesday.
Mr Varadkar sought the meeting with senior management from the major suppliers after expressing the view that prices still remained too high despite a spate of reductions being announced in the past 10 days.
Speaking to reporters in Dublin, the Taoiseach would not disclose the percentage he had in mind, other than to say that the reductions of between 10 to 20 per cent announced by companies so far did not go far enough.
“I don’t want to pre-empt the outcome of that meeting. The message to them is very clear that the price reductions that they’ve announced in the last couple of weeks are welcome, but they’re not enough,” he said. “I want to see further price reductions announced in the next few months.”
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Mr Varadkar was speaking at Farmleigh House where he hosted the Croatian prime minister, Andrej Plenković, who is on a visit to Ireland.
Significantly higher bills
While the recent price decreases have been welcomed by customers, energy bills remain significantly higher than before the cost of living crisis and Ukraine war began a cycle of increases that led to domestic gas and electricity bills doubling for most households.
However, the average wholesale price of electricity paid by providers in Ireland per megawatt-hour during August was €106.46, down 72 per cent from €387.63 in August of last year.
All of the main suppliers, including Electric Ireland, SSE Airtricity and Energia, have announced price reductions of between 10 and 20 per cent since early September.
“I don’t think that’s enough,” said Mr Varadkar. “I’ll be putting pressure on them to bring prices down further over the course of the winter.
Hardship funds
“We’ll be asking them to put in place hardship funds and put in arrangements for people who are vulnerable customers, as was done last winter.
“We are also imposing a windfall tax on the very high profits that so many generators have made, and some energy companies have made and we’re going to use that money to help reduce household bills.”
Mr Varadkar and Mr Plenković expressed confidence that there would be security of energy supply in Europe over the winter months, despite the continuing war in Ukraine.
“We’ve been able to build up our stores of gas and oil, and also been able to find alternative sources,” said the Taoiseach.
Mr Varadkar said there help would be announced next month in the budget for householders in terms of energy costs, which would be covered using the proceeds from the windfall tax.
Asked if there would be energy credits for all households, as happened last year, Mr Varadkar said that matter was yet to be decided.
