Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Blaney for his presentation. I have heard many concerns about electricity prices. When the market was opened up, the ESB had the cheapest prices in Europe. The prices have since then been deliberately increased in advance of privatising sections of the company. Be it some European directive or otherwise, I cannot understand why one would privatise a semi-State company that makes money for the State. I am certainly opposed to any such move. What role did the commission have in the original arrangements that brought this into place? To me, it flies in the face of what I believe. On top of that, jobs have been created by the ESB while profits have been consistently large but we keep jacking up the prices. There seems to be price-fixing in either Europe or in Ireland or a combination of both. What is the commission's view on that?

We are very dependent on gas and our supply is linked into the European network. How sustainable are gas supplies in the long run? Are we talking about 20 years or 50 years before problems emerge with supplies? If gas supply breaks down or we run into resource problems, where are we? Will we have to move over to electricity? Mr. Blaney earlier said targets for electricity have been set at 40% and up to 75%. To reach that there will have to be significant investment in the grid and electricity generation.

How does the idea of better competition in the market by allowing companies take on a semi-State company with high prices work? If smart meters were introduced, would it lead to savings? Would there be a cost to the consumer to install them? Will businesses have to install these smart meters?

Obviously we have the resources for solar and wind energy production. Is sea or tidal energy a viable runner? Are we just concentrating on wind and solar energy?