Data this week from the CSO on agriculture input costs showed that electricity prices were 32% higher in July of 2023 than they were a year ago. While the major electricity suppliers in Ireland have announced price cuts in the last week, many of those reductions will not come into play for several weeks.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said he told those companies that have announced cuts that they have not gone far enough when he met them on Tuesday of this week. He also said that there would be help for households facing high energy bills coming into winter, funded from an energy windfall tax. He did not specify what form that support would take.

Minister for Finance Michael McGrath has also promised that there would be measures to help with energy costs, saying the Government would “do its best for households”, while also not giving any specific details on what those measures might be. The Government will also be under pressure to abandon the scheduled post-budget excise duty hike on fuel, as the cost of both petrol and diesel have rapidly risen in recent weeks.