Joe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will provide the 2013 figures for the number of customers who switched providers. A total of 266,224 electricity customers and 117,002, gas customers switched providers. I take the Senator's point that certain categories of customers are used to working with their supplier and we should facilitate them. There is a role for the Commission for Energy Regulation to raise awareness for them. The Senator has been of assistance by raising this matter today.

The difficulty with the geography and the type of energy mix in this country means there is a significant 85% reliance on fossil fuels. We are working towards the target of a 40% increase in the use of indigenous renewables by 2020. However, the reality is that we are still relying 85% on fossil fuels, including gas and peat. For example, Italy has a similar reliance but it also relies on hydroelectricity for 25% of its fuel. Holland has a similar trajectory but it has its own oil and gas supplies.

While these are constraints, they are not excuses. We need to make a determined effort to ensure that we work towards a future use of a renewable mix. I attended a conference this morning in Carton House, Maynooth, which dealt with the topic of how to introduce more competition and how we can work with our counterparts. I was involved in efforts to set up a bilateral agreement between the United Kingdom and Ireland in my capacity as Co-Chair of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly. This did not come to pass but I do not think we should give up on the subject of interconnectivity, be it on a British-Irish basis, on a European basis or a connection with France. We need to consider all this mix. We must be conscious of the opportunities as well as the constraints. We have a single, all-island market which is creating more competition. Scottish and Southern Energy plans to launch a plant in County Wexford this year, next to Senator Cullinane's part of the world. There is plant in Cork, next door to the Senator's county, at Aghada and Whitegate, which was opened in 2010. The vast bulk of our purchase of gas comes from the United Kingdom. These are the challenges but they are not excuses in that we must continue to work towards facilitating more competition to ensure a downward pressure on prices for customers.

While the economy is moving in the right direction, people are still getting bills through the door. Senator Sheahan knows well the challenges faced by people. They will have a few more pounds their pockets at the end of this month but they still have bills such as car insurance, the tax bill, the television licence fee and the electricity bill. The Senator has raised a very important issue and I thank him.