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

12:25 pm

Mr. Dermot Nolan:

It is. Again, we provided further information. In terms of its profitability, it is, given the size of the organisation. It is divided. Network profitability, which is a classic monopoly and is separated, and it is ring-fenced within ESB, has set a rate of return so that it earns in some sense a steady, relatively low level of profit. Generation profits are not directly regulated by either the North or the South. The market is regulated in a very complex way, but profitability is not. As I said, generation profits have been higher over the past few years because of this issue but I would expect them to fall.

The last comment on that is - again, I will send further information on this - we have measured profitability of the ESB as compared to similar comparitor-----