Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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607. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if an economic division exists in his Department; if so, the extent to which comparisons continue to be made between energy costs here and those in adjoining jurisdictions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5004/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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My Department has an economic unit which is responsible for the provision of economic analysis across the Department.

Electricity price statistics for Ireland and EU Member States are publicly available. SEAI publishes biannual reports on electricity and gas prices in Ireland. The reports analyse electricity and natural gas price data, as published by Eurostat and collected for Ireland and other European countries under the methodology for the EU Gas and Electricity Price Transparency Directive 90/377/EEC as amended by Council Decision 2007/394/EC. Since 2008, these comparable data for all EU Member States are published every six months on the Eurostat website.

The most recent SEAI biannual price report was published in December 2014 and contains electricity and gas price statistics for the period January to June 2014. The reports present detailed information, analysis and commentary on Ireland’s comparative electricity and gas prices and trends in these prices over time, for both EU 28 and Eurozone Member States.

These electricity and gas price reports, going back to 2008, are available on the SEAI website at the following link: .

Insofar as oil is concerned, the European Commission maintains a Statistics and Market Observatory, which publishes a weekly Oil Bulletin with consumer prices of petroleum products in EU Member States, including Ireland. The petroleum products reported include gasoline, diesel, gasoil and fuel oil. The Oil Bulletin is designed to improve transparency and strengthen the internal market. It contains tables with consumer prices in all 28 Member States prices, as well as separate euro-area and non-euro area tables and information on prices with and without taxes. It is available at: .