Michael Moynihan (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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32. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on discussions and steps being taken by member states at European Union level to ensure that electricity and gas suppliers pass on the reduction of global oil and gas prices to domestic consumers. [16195/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The European Commission recently published the Energy Union Package, A Framework Strategy for a Resilient Energy Union with a Forward-Looking Climate Change Package. The package andaccompanying suite of documents are published at . These documents set out the European Union policy to achieve secure, sustainable competitive and affordable energy for all EU energy customers, household and business. Together with my fellow EU energy ministers I have contributed to the debate on the energy union strategy, most recently at energy ministers meetings in Brussels and Riga.

At the heart of the policy is a vision for an Energy Union composed of an integrated Europe-wide energy system where energy flows freely across borders, based on competition and the efficient use of resources, with effective regulation of energy markets and delivering a sustainable and climate friendly economy that is designed to last and serve the interests of Irish and European consumers. The five dimensions of the Energy Union framework are: energy security based on solidarity and trust; a fully integrated European energy market; energy efficiency contributing to moderation of demand; decarbonising the economy; and research, innovation and competitiveness.

Among the proposals in the strategy designed to achieve the full integration of the European internal energy market are the full implementation of the Energy Third Package legislation and the enhancement of regional approaches to energy market integration. The Commission also intends to ensure greater transparency in the composition of energy costs and prices by developing regular and detailed monitoring and reporting on energy prices, with particular attention to the role of taxes, levies and national supports. The Commission also intends to prepare an ambitious legislative proposal to redesign the electricity market, including a proposal to link wholesale and retail markets.

For our part, the Integrated Single Electricity Market Project (I-SEM), led by the regulators in Ireland and Northern Ireland, will deliver improved electricity regional market integration. This will achieve, inter alia, greater competition in the wholesale generation market and greater access to lower wholesale prices in neighbouring markets, with more efficient use of interconnection between the island of Ireland and Great Britain.