Speaking in Cork where he was briefed on the €700 million investment in Irish wind energy by Danish firm, Ørsted, which now operates 19 wind farms here, Mr Varadkar said he was conscious of the impact of high fuel prices on families, and he pointed out the Government could intervene in three ways.
Mr Varadkar said that the money obtained from the special dividend from the ESB could be given back to businesses and householders through energy credits, but he stressed that the Government had made no decision on whether energy credits should be extended into this winter. “Look, we do know to be fair, many companies did forward purchase and had higher prices . . . but the fact is that we have had lower prices for a considerable period of time and that should reflect itself in the consumer prices and the prices people are paying at the pump and for home heating.”
“We have intervened before as a Government and we are keeping the situation under review and obviously in the budget later in the year, we will take the opportunity to assess it to see if we help people in terms of the pressures that they are under as we did last year, very comprehensively.”