Results 321-340 of 1,132 for speaker:Garret Ahearn

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: In his contribution, Mr. Godfrey spoke about how the CCPC has a responsibility to make sure that pricing is attractive to customers. If I drive into a fuel station and it is 50 cent higher than everywhere else in the country, who do I complain to? There is no point complaining to the fuel station. Who do I complain to?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: If the fuel stations know that the CCPC does not act on a complaint, or not that the CCPC does not act but that there are very few complaints brought to it on the pricing of fuel, how is the CCPC a deterrent to companies having an increase in their prices?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: The argument is that there is no need for a service to regulate it, which is a strange argument to make. Everyone knows of places where, if it is perhaps not 50 cent higher, prices are much higher than other places in the country. That is sometimes because it might be the only fuel station within 20 km and there are many reasons for it, for example, the profit margins are different if it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: I get that. I get the display part of it. In Mr. Murphy's contribution as well as in Mr. Godfrey's, they spoke about the penalties that are there for companies that do not act accordingly. One of those penalties is up to a ten-year prison sentence. The ten-year prison sentence is not going to someone who did not display a price rise and that is clearly for a different offence. For an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: What is the level that is not competitive, in Mr. Godfrey's view?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: I am conscious of time. Mr. Godfrey's argument is that it is unlawful for them to have a cartel and to work with each other to set a price, but there is nothing the CCPC can do if I drive into a filling station and I spend way over the odds, for example, €2.50 per litre on diesel today. If I make a complaint to the CCPC, that complaint is pointless, really. Mr. Godfrey said people...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: The CCPC will check collusion but it will not check the price.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: Mr. Godfrey does not know who does.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: I thank the witness.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: Sarah Collins had an article on the front page of the Irish Independentthis morning about how fuel and heating costs are expected to reach a 40-year record high. Is that how the commission sees it in terms of fuel costs for this year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: Does the commission expect the price of fuel to keep increasing throughout the year? Deputy Bruton was talking about the average price at the moment for Ireland. I randomly picked a day after the Government had put in the 15 cent cut in fuel prices. Our average for that day was €1.85 while the European average was €1.86 and the world average fuel price was €1.05. The...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: Mr. Godfrey mentioned crude oil. The argument is always made that increases in crude oil reflect the increases in petrol and diesel for obvious reasons. One would think then that the graph per year would always be the same. In 2008, however, the price of crude oil was way higher than it is now but diesel and petrol were cheaper. Why was that the case? The price of crude oil at the moment...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: When the commission looks at complaints about prices, I assume the price of crude oil is what it looks at first. However, if it has been the case previously that the price of crude oil increased dramatically but the price at the pumps did not, it seems to be an outlier.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: Most petrol stations and companies involved in diesel and petrol work off pretty tight margins, unless they are putting crazy prices up. They want people to come into the petrol station to buy other products. Hedging is popular within petrol stations. What percentage of businesses have a set price, essentially, for their diesel or petrol?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: Would Mr. Godfrey agree that if companies buy in bulk or buy for a set price for a period of time, an increase in prices should not have an effect on those companies? When there is an increase in the price of crude oil, the price at the petrol pumps goes up straight away but when there is a decrease it takes ages for the price to fall. Companies that are trying to run their business well...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: How many times has the CCPC sent a file to the DPP based on those complaints? I am referring to complaints on fuel pricing and nothing else. I am asking for a percentage. If there were, for example, ten complaints on fuel pricing a year or if there were suspicious acts within companies with regard to------

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: How many times has that been done?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: I am not asking about insurance but just fuel pricing.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: There has been nothing in terms of the price of fuel. If I make a complaint about the price of fuel at the pump, the CCPC will not deal with the actual price because that is independently set. It investigates whether the supplier is acting incorrectly or colluding with other groups. No prosecution has ever been brought in that regard. A file has never been sent to the DPP in respect of...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation: Fuel Costs: Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (23 Mar 2022)

Garret Ahearn: Yes, I am asking about petrol stations and fuel prices.