Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael)
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Question 363: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland will submit an up to date review of electricity and gas prices here as the latest edition dates back to May 2010 before the recent increase in prices; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41129/10]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) will publish its update of electricity and gas prices in early December. Updated prices data for Ireland have been submitted to Eurostat, which will publish the complete set of comparative European data next month. Recent adjustments to the PSO will be reflected in the May 2011 publication – data collection for that period under the relevant EU Directive commences in the new year.

Recognising the concerns of indigenous business and the inward investment community, particularly in view of the difficult economic conditions, the Government has put in place a number of measures to mitigate the cost of energy for business.

All electricity users benefitted in 2009 from rebates totalling €567m. In July 2009 the Government agreed that these rebates would continue for large energy users at the same level until October 2010 and would then be phased out over the following two year period.

The Carbon Revenue Levy commenced on July 1st 2010, following the enactment of the Electricity Regulation (Carbon Revenue Levy) Act. This Act levies electricity generators to capture a significant portion of the carbon windfall gains that they are currently receiving. Receipts from the Carbon Revenue Levy will fund the large energy user rebate until the end of 2012.

For small to medium business users, the Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) reduced regulated ESB prices twice in 2009, by an average of 10% from May 1st and a further 5.5% from October 1st 2009.

Business customers can also avail of the competitive benefits of value and choice by shopping around for alternative suppliers. Competition in the business electricity market has developed to such an extent that the CER has recently decided to end price regulation for ESB in this market segment. As a result, ESB is free to compete against the independent electricity suppliers for all business customers.

The CER had also completed its 5-year review of electricity network expenditure. The review imposes measures to ensure that ESB and EirGrid make even greater efficiencies in network operational and capital expenditure, thus mitigating costs for all consumers. In line with Government policy, this review also includes some re-balancing of network tariffs in the interests of mitigating energy costs for business.

Taken together, these measures, along with falling natural gas prices, have already had a significant impact on Ireland's energy cost competitiveness over the last two years. The latest comparative statistics available from the SEAI show that in general, Irish electricity prices in 2009 fell at a faster rate than in the rest of the EU, moving Ireland significantly closer to the EU average. Prices for the majority of business consumption bands are within 6% of the EU average. The SEAI data for the first half of 2010 show further significant reductions in Irish electricity prices. Prices for the large business categories have reduced on a cumulative basis by some 34% - 44% in the 18 months to June 2010.

The Government also remains firmly committed to increasing competition as the best means of exerting downward pressure on electricity prices. Significant progress has been made to date, most notably with the all-island Single Electricity Market now in its 3rd year of successful operation, the sale of ESB generation capacity, the entry of new players into both the generation and supply markets and new generation capacity coming on-stream in the Irish market.