Mr. Alex Chisholm:

I thank the Chairman. Deputies Ellis and O'Donovan asked further questions. I have mentioned the fines and other payments following compliance actions in the electronic communications sector.

I would also like to speak about the system we put in place with Eircom in regard to its own quality of service performance. It, too, has targets and has struggled at times to meet its targets. We put in place a performance improvement programme with a €10 million bond four years ago. Every year since then considerable improvements have been made in quality of service under these financial incentives. Payments have had to be paid where they have fallen due. The system is working well and delivering terrific benefits and savings for the consumers who I am sure this committee would like to represent.

In regard to the questions on the ESB and Bord Gáis and their profits and the actions of the Northern Ireland regulator, I suggest those questions are best put to the Commission for Energy Regulation. We have no responsibility for energy. We only deal with the communications sector.

In regard to postal prices and rates and comparisons there, I agree it is the case that in respect of the core letter post, what used to be the reserved area, there have been no increases in prices for the past five years. Indeed, there have been no applications for such until this year. However, there were a number of increases in the non-reserved area. If one is trying to make comparisons between postal prices paid here and in other jurisdictions in Europe, the European and OECD guidance say that one should not make direct comparisons, or overly precise ones, because there are differences in the postal schemes in place, most particularly, a number of countries have a two-tier service and we only have a one-tier service.

Putting that all to one side, it is the case that ordinary letter prices here are relatively low, which is obviously a consideration we will take fully into account in considering the price application from An Post, and that there has not been any increase, even for the consumer price index, in recent years. The legislation, where it refers to the postal price cap, suggests that a CPI allowance should be made, so again that is a consideration we will have to take fully into account.