Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman and welcome the organisations before us. It was a very worthwhile discussion and debate. Some of the witnesses have explained the exasperation that is prevalent and the perception that prices have dropped in the last quarter of 2014 with no corresponding price drop in household or business energy bills. I understand hedging but there has been a considerable reduction in wholesale price in the last quarter of 2014 and in early 2015. Even though prices have crept up by 8% in the past couple of weeks, can the witnesses explain when we can see this reduction reflected for consumers? Is it true that the wholesale price of gas, as pointed out by the Commission for Energy Regulation last week, has dropped by something like 18%? The figures presented by the witnesses that 30% of the energy price is made up by the wholesale costs of energy means that consumers should be seeing a reduction of 6% or 7% across the board in energy prices. Will the witnesses indicate to the committee when we might see this reduction as the price coming through is between 1.5% and 3%? I presume that all the companies having looked at their hedging and bought in the last quarter of 2014 would have reserves of cheaper, wholesale gas on the market. Are we looking at energy price being stabilised at a lower rate in the latter half of 2015 or early in 2016? How far in advance would the gas purchase have been hedged?