Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 3, line 10, after "MARKET" to insert the following:

"AND FOR MECHANISMS TO PROTECT THE INTERESTS OF ELECTRICITY CONSUMERS".

The aim of this amendment is to change the Title of the Bill by inserting the phrase "AND FOR MECHANISMS TO PROTECT THE INTERESTS OF ELECTRICITY CONSUMERS". I thought it would be appropriate to amend the Title, particularly because in later amendments I am trying to insert some mechanism whereby the rights of consumers will be protected. On many occasions on the Order of Business in the past year, Deputies Durkan, Eamon Ryan and I have referred to the price levels relating to gas and electricity in particular. It was partly due to our campaigns in respect of CER that the price of gas was reduced and that the price of electricity was increased to the level originally envisaged.

A number of the amendments in my name deal with this issue. When the House debated what became the Energy (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, I tried to have it amended to the effect that a consumer panel would be provided within the Commission for Energy Regulation. This would have reflected the substance of amendment No. 1, namely, that the rights of consumers be taken into consideration.

A large part of the Bill deals with the regulation of the wholesale electricity market, the new all-island market of approximately 6,500 to 7,000 MW that is being created and the role of the SEM committee — the Single Market operator — CER and SONI, the Northern Ireland regulator, in determining prices of electricity. We have engaged in lengthy debates in the past 12 to 18 months on trying to protect the rights of consumers. In my view, householders and business consumers should be central to the development of the Single Market. After all, the basic rationale behind this development is that the electricity markets of the Republic and Northern Ireland are small and isolated. The southern market is obviously in transition and I have strong views regarding how it should evolve in the context of the future of the Electricity Supply Board and the development of competition in generation and the development of renewables as a source of electricity. I also harbour strong views on the development of the Northern Ireland market as an example to the South of a botched privatisation. Privatisation created the worst of all possible worlds for the Northern Ireland electricity consumer, with no competition and high prices for a decade and a half. This was due to the isolation of the Northern Ireland market. I wanted this amendment to be made to the Title so as to put in place a key responsibility for the Commission for Energy Regulation and the single electricity market operator to ensure consumers' needs would be paramount. The Bill must ensure the provision of secure and cheaper electricity supplies as a single all-island market develops. It is a great historic step and I commend the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Noel Dempsey, and the Minister of State, Deputy Browne, in that regard.

Consumers' needs must be highlighted from the start. All last autumn on the Order of Business I tried to raise the issue, that consumers' interests were not sufficiently addressed, with electricity and gas price rises. The mechanisms of the Commission for Energy Regulation are too inflexible to respond to changing market conditions and oil and gas price rises. I know we are a price-taker in the two island markets but a more responsive regulator is needed.

My other amendments seek to insert similar provisions to those in the United Kingdom, the most deregulated market in Europe, where OFGEM and energywatch encourage consumers to switch if an operator puts up its prices. There is no choice of supplier in Ireland. There was briefly with Airtricity but Veridian has not yet entered the domestic supply market.

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