The future of energy credits for struggling consumers will be decided based on the cost of energy at the time of the Budget, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.
He also warned that energy companies must lower their prices for consumers now that wholesale prices are falling.
The final €200 credit was applied to bills for the March/April period. Over the last year, four energy credits have been given to consumers.
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However, the Government ruled out making further interventions in February as part of its cost-of-living package. It was hoped at the time that falling prices and reduced demand would lead to lower bills.
Speaking in Cork on Friday afternoon, Mr Varadkar said that while there will be no credits over the summer months, they are not being ruled out for the future.
"I think it depends on where energy prices go between now and Budget Day," he said.
"That is a decision for the Budget in October. The last one has been paid. There aren't any plans to pay any more over the summer period.
"But it is something that we will revisit heading into the winter but that will depend both on what energy prices look like and also the wider Budget package, which it will be part of."
The Taoiseach also remarked upon CSO figures released on Friday, which show that whole electricity prices decreased by over 50 per cent in the 12 months to March 2023.
They also decreased by 8.7 per cent between February and March.
Mr Varadkar said that while it is welcome that wholesale prices are falling, this has not been experienced by consumers and businesses.
"But what happens is the retailers, those who sell gas and electricity to homeowners and businesses, they didn't pass on all of the wholesale increase.
"So there will have to be a time lag until we see that being passed on now, the wholesale prices are falling. But I do expect it to happen.
"We are saying very clearly to the electricity companies and the gas companies that we're not going to allow a situation whereby they record bumper profits and don't bring down prices.
"We can intervene in three ways and we're doing that. One is putting pressure on those companies to bring down their prices so that electricity prices and gas prices come down for businesses, come down for householders.
"But also, we're imposing a windfall tax on the profits of energy companies and we're also taking a special dividend from the ESB and that's money that we can then use to give back to businesses through the Temporary Business Energy Support Scheme [TBESS] and get back to householders through the energy credits."
Speaking elsewhere in Cork, Tánaiste Micheál Martin said that many companies "forward purchased at higher prices" but that "time is coming" that lower wholesale prices should be reflected in the consumer price.
He said: "We have intervened as a Government, we will keep the situation under review.
"Obviously in the Budget later in the year, we will take opportunities again to assess it and to help people in terms of the pressures that they're under."
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