Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

-----wants the Irish consumer to face a difficult price increase. What we need is diversity of supply. The PSO was introduced in 2001 to protect the consumer in the long run and develop alternative supplies which would be less volatile. No one wants to increase prices. The PSO was introduced for strategic reasons which made sense.

As well as prices for the average Irish household being about 2% below the eurozone average, there is an opportunity, because we have introduced a competitive market, for householders to shop around and obtain a further 10% to 14% reduction. Approximately 30% of householders have already done this and there is nothing to stop the remaining 70% from obtaining this reduction by switching supplier. This has been done to ensure we will develop a competitive market and it is possible with one telephone call. This facility is not available in Northern Ireland or other European countries.

We have a competitive market here as a result of the adoption of a good policy approach which is overseen by the Commission for Energy Regulation. Last Friday the business market was deregulated. This means it is now fully competitive, with five or more serious competitors seeking customers' business. Similarly, we will move in the domestic sector to adopting such a deregulated approach, which is the right way to keep operators honest and ensure they keep their costs down. They know they must compete with other supply companies and thus keep down prices for the Irish householder. The CER implements a range of European regulations, from which we benefit. It has introduced a regulatory approach, as well as competition, and fundamentally changed the market from one in which there was a monopoly ten years ago to one which is made up of five serious competitors, plus a range of other suppliers, willing to offer an electricity supply to Irish households. It has worked and is resulting in reduced prices, in a way with which we should not interfere or distort.

The PSO levy was, as I stated, introduced in 2001 by way of legislation. I did not introduce it and cannot remove it.