Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister for his admission and his willingness to take action regarding the outage in the telecommunications area. Will he elucidate further, with a view to setting a precise deadline and timetable to deal with that situation whereby innocent subscribers became the victims and where the delivery of services either was not properly anticipated or people were not made aware of negotiations taking place and were arbitrarily left without a service? Will the Minister give an undertaking that it will not happen again and that he will take the necessary action to prevent it?

I am concerned about the function of the regulator re gas and electricity price increases. The Minister should also be concerned about it. I presume he is aware that if this trend continues and these prices are left in place for the next 12 months, there will be large-scale loss of manufacturing jobs, in addition to jobs in the services sector, especially in the transport area. Is the Minister also aware that from last May the international indicators on energy prices clearly implied that production was up and that countless people were talking up the price of gas and oil? There was a reason for that.

Will the Minister give an undertaking to the House that before this goes further, he will order an inquiry into the information that led to the dramatic price increases in gas and electricity and will he relate that to the information which I know he has because he reads some of the same e-mails I receive? Will he carry out an examination of the impact on those industries that are now crying out for action?

Will the Minister order a further review of the price increases and the reasons therefor? If, for example, it is shown that there are good and compelling reasons for a reduction in the area, will he authorise it or order it, or would that require legislation?

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