Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Eight suppliers operate in the electricity market and there are coincidentally eight active suppliers licensed by the regulator in the gas market. For a country our size there is certainly adequate competition, but as the Deputy fairly points out, energy prices in this country are high. That is partly because we are an isolated island that has not generated any of its own fuel in terms of oil or gas to any persistent or regular extent.

There is a practice involved of debt flagging in terms of switching providers. Switching has been significant. There must be a system of debt flagging because otherwise there is the phenomenon known as debt hopping. In other words, one accumulates arrears and then one switches to a different supplier. That must be taken on board as well and acknowledged that it is a problem. Some 250,000 customers switched their electricity supplier in 2012. They were composed of 215,000 domestic customers, 33,500 small businesses, 3,000 medium businesses and 231 large energy users. In the gas market, 110,000 customers switched, almost 17%. They were composed of 106,000 domestic customers and 3,867 business customers. There is competition.

Deputy Moynihan is correct; the profits of the supply companies seem to be large. In the case of the State companies where we have some say as shareholder, of course investment is needed to maintain the system. The capital investment in the ESB alone this year will be €888 million. It is a huge spend that does benefit the economy and whereas the profits might seem large, investment must be made in order to continue to modernise and build out the transmission system.

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