Dessie Ellis (Dublin North West, Sinn Fein)
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To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will confirm the ratio of rising fuel costs to the increase in electricity prices this year; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43725/12]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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My Department has not conducted an exercise of the type mentioned by the Deputy. Such an exercise would require the identification of reliable comparable data sets suitable for the precise purpose of understanding and explaining the relationship between the relevant fuel costs and electricity prices. Suitable data sets are not readily available, particularly in the case of fuel costs. Timeliness of available data is also an issue. In the case of electricity prices, EU level data are only made available six months to a year after the period to which they relate.

Since 2008, and every six months approximately, Eurostat publishes comparable data on electricity and gas prices for all EU states. The Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) publishes analyses of those Eurostat data twice a year. The analysis is conducted by the Energy Policy Statistical Support Unit (EPSSU), the specialist statistical unit of SEAI and each price analysis publication covers a six month period (either January to June or July to December).

SEAI analysis demonstrates that a number of factors influence energy prices in Ireland, and show how prices here compare with other EU countries. These factors include, but are not limited to, imported fuel prices, energy infrastructure investment costs, Ireland’s electricity generating fuel mix and non-energy costs that affect energy prices (for example, taxes levied, employment costs, raw material and transport and shipping costs).

The fuel mix for electricity generation has a key bearing on the variation in the price of electricity in different countries. This is particularly significant in the case of an electricity fuel mix which relies to a significant extent on internationally traded fossil fuels, such as gas, oil and coal. During periods of volatile price movements in these fuels there is a strong consequential knock-on impact on electricity prices in the short term. Other factors that affect electricity prices include the level of competition in electricity generation and supply, labour costs, geographic isolation and the extent of population dispersal, taxation policy and the level of investment required in infrastructure to improve the transmission and distribution networks.

According to the SEAI analysis Ireland has close to the highest overall dependency on fossil fuels for electricity generation across the EU at 78%, behind the Netherlands at 83%, Cyprus 98% and Malta at 100%. Within the fossil fuel category, the analysis shows that Ireland additionally has a high dependency on gas in electricity generation, at 62%. This is the third highest share of gas generation in electricity, behind Luxembourg at 64% and the Netherlands at 63%.

Our heavy reliance on gas imported from the UK and traded in Sterling means that Irish electricity prices are susceptible to fluctuations in the wholesale cost of gas and in exchange rate movements. According to the September 2012 Bord Gáis Energy Index, in the 12 months to September 2012 the wholesale cost of natural gas has increased by 20% and the Euro has weakened by 7% compared to Sterling. This will affect the cost of generating electricity in Ireland.

The latest analysis of data published by Eurostat for electricity prices is published by the SEAI and covers the period July to December 2011. This publication is available on the SEAI website: