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New figures released to Aontú TD Paul Lawless show that the ESB reported after tax profits of €2.9 Billion between 2022 and 2025.
It comes as Electric Ireland is set to increase electricity prices by 8% tomorrow.
Speaking today, Deputy Lawless, said: “It is scandalous that a semi-state body like ESB is making such savage profits, while we have over 300,000 people in arrears on their electricity bills at the moment across the country. ”
“Tomorrow Electric Ireland – the retail arm of the ESB – is hiking electricity prices by 8%. We know that data centres are paying much less for electricity connection charges and per unit of electricity than regular households. This is wrong, and tomorrow Aontú has a motion before the Dáil which seeks to reduce ESB’s profits to zero, which would save every household €300 a year,” he said.
“ESB is a semi-state body – they should be making enough money to invest and cover its costs, but there is no reason why it should be making such savage profits”, concluded Lawless.
Deputy Lawless had asked the Minister for Energy and the Environment the level of profit made by ESB in recent years; the portion returned to the State versus shareholders; and whether the Government can intervene to reduce profit levels in order to lower electricity costs for ordinary consumers.
Replying, Minister Darragh O’Brien said that “ESB is a State owned body under the aegis of my Department” and that the provider “reports on its financial performance in accordance with Section 7 of the Electricity (Supply) Acts 1927, (as amended) and the 2016 Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies.”
“ESB reports its profit after tax figures in its publicly available financial accounts each year. The State holds a 97.7% share in ESB with the remaining 2.3% held by the Trustee of the Employee Share Ownership Plan (ESOP),” he said, adding that ESB’s dividend policy aligns with the minimum 30% dividend target set by the Department of Public Expenditure.
He gave the annual profit after tax figures for ESB over the last four years, along with the breakdown of profit and dividends (State versus ESOP) are as follows:
| Financial Year | Profit after Tax | Total Dividend | State Dividend | ESOP |
| 2025 | €636m | €149m | €145.6m | €3.4m |
| 2024 | €706m | €189m | €184.7m | €4.3m |
| 2023 | €868m | €220m | €214.9m | €5.1m |
| 2022 | €685m | €259m | €253m | €6m |
“ESB’s generation and supply businesses are required to operate separately as mandated under European Union energy unbundling directives and given effect in Ireland by competition law and the Electricity Regulation Act 1999, so increased profits from ESB’s generation business cannot be used to offset costs incurred by Electric Ireland,” the Minister said.
“Group profits are invested in critical networks, renewable generation and other important energy infrastructure, as well as used to pay tax and dividends to the Government,” he said.
“Additionally, the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU) sets price controls that dictate the revenue that ESB can recover from customers for managing the electricity grid. The CRU operates as an independent statutory body, is solely accountable to a Committee of the Oireachtas and makes its regulatory decisions independently,” he added.
This week, Electric Ireland announced price increases for residential electricity and gas from 1st of July 2026, saying residential electricity bills will increase by 8% and residential gas bills will increase by 7.7%
“The conflict in the Middle East has resulted in significant upward price pressure on wholesale energy markets,” Electric Ireland said. “This is the first time Electric Ireland has increased prices since October 2022; in the intervening period, the company delivered three gas price reductions, two electricity price reductions, and froze electricity prices last winter – at a time when most other suppliers increased prices.”
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