Sen Fidelma Healy Eames has hit out at the continuing high cost of energy, despite a massive drop in the cost of oil.
Sen Healy Eames said the Energy Regulator’s response to her query as to why the cost of electricity in Ireland remains excessively high “simply do not wash and are a poor attempt to mislead hard pressed consumers”. She added that the continuing high cost of electricity is affecting thousands of Galway families, particularly those at risk of fuel poverty.
“Attempts by the Energy Regulator to defend the disproportionately high price of electricity in Ireland, when the cost of oil has plummeted from an all time high of €147 a barrel to less than €50 today, were to suggest that energy companies held stocks of up to six months supply in hand, meaning that today’s supply is being met with stock which was purchased at the previous higher rate,” she said.
“This excuse is wholly unacceptable as unprecedented price hikes of 17.5 per cent for electricity and 20 per cent for gas were granted to the ESB and Bord Gáis respectively during the summer months when oil prices peaked. If the regulator’s argument held any weight he would see that these increases were unwarranted as the companies in question would still have been operating on older oil stocks which had been purchased at lower rates.
“These lame excuses are an insulting attempt to sidetrack the real issues and to deflect consumer attention away from the reality of the situation,” she asserted.
Sen Healy Eames said that Irish consumers now pay considerably more for home heating oil than other EU residents, and called for the implementation of measures to further regulate the energy market.
“Fine Gael released figures recently which revealed that Irish homes will pay €60 million more on home heating oil this winter as Irish prices are now 23 per cent higher than the EU average. We have called for the merging of the National Consumer Agency and Competition Authority to form the Irish Fair Trading Agency which would have the tools to rigorously enforce competition and consumer law.
“Irish consumers are tired of being incessantly ripped off and these comments by the regulator further compounds the abuses which have been presided over by successive Fianna Fáil led governments for years.”
