Arthur Spring (Kerry North-West Limerick, Labour)

This matter must be resolved. To put it in context, under the strategic infrastructural planning rules in this country, in 2006 Shannon LNG achieved planning permission within six months. However, it took the regulator 18 months to analyse that decision and now it seems that it will be 2014 before any project gets off the ground. There is no certainty surrounding this and for anybody considering making a substantial investment of between €600 million and €1 billion the figures must be provided with regard to the proposed tariff. Any business plan must be able to be promoted so that a decision can be made on whether it will go ahead. The liaison group should be set up immediately and should be required to resolve the matter within the next six months. Then Hess and LNG can commit or not to tendering for the project.

A report of The Economist intelligence unit produced for the Department of the Taoiseach in 2009 stated that evidence that energy prices in Ireland are high by international standards raises potential questions about the effectiveness of the regulatory regime in the absence of some alternative explanation for such high prices and that the regulator's job is not to set artificially low prices but to ensure that the customers are not paying for more or less than they would in competitive markets. It is high time we took a look at how our system works and separated how Bord Gáis networks work and how private investors can consider creating jobs and reducing the price of energy, ultimately creating competitiveness for the consumer and for the national well-being. Some 65% of the electricity that is created in this country is from gas. I welcome better sources, but the process is too slow. Action by the regulator since 2002 is unacceptable and the regulatory system needs to be improved to that end.

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