Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 17 January 2013
Public Accounts Committee
Commission for Aviation Regulation - Financial Statement 2011
Commission for Communications Regulation - Financial Statement 2011
Commission for Energy Regulation - Financial Statement 2011
11:35 am
Mr. Dermot Nolan:
I accept that. I will explain in two ways. We completed a new gas review that year. As with aviation, we conduct a review of network monopolies every five years. We try to keep costs as low as possible. According to our review, network costs had increased slightly for two reasons. First and as has been discussed in terms of aviation, the average volume of gas used has fallen significantly in recent years. Second, the nature of such investments means that there is an efficient cost for the entire gas network. The more gas that is used, the better. If volumes are high, great, as the cost per unit of gas will be lower.