Mr. Brian McHugh:

In the context of energy and the profits of the various companies, the ESB is regulated by the CRU as a network-owning business. A huge amount of effort goes into overseeing that company in order to ensure that what it delivers is efficient, including in the context of its profits. I am not going to comment on the decisions that are made. A great deal is published on how those decisions are arrived at. There will always be questions for the CRU on how to resolve this problem, because the problem identified by the Cathaoirleach is very real in terms of businesses and consumers. We talked a bit about supermarkets where there have been major improvements. We just have not seen improvement in the energy sector. The market is not delivering for Irish consumers and businesses. A huge effort goes in from the teams there to try to deliver for Irish businesses and consumers. As stated earlier, how the market is designed and how gas prices drive the electricity prices in Ireland that we all experience are matters of constant debate. People are trying to find solutions. We do not duplicate the work of the CRU in terms of those market designs. The CRU tries, in multiple consultations, to make the market work better. We engage with the CRU on certain issues around competition. We had conversations with the CRU this week. There are regular engagements. In respect of the fundamental problem, however, as I mentioned, the market design is a Europe-wide issue. It comes up in many European countries.

In regard to the consumer, we did quite a bit of work on switching a number of years ago. There is a real issue with what is called a loyalty penalty whereby consumers who are loyal to particular businesses suffer for it. We have seen this in the insurance sector, for example. We believe that regulators should intervene to ensure-----