Vol. 485 No. 2
114 Mr. Gormley asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if she will give a commitment that the deregulation of the electricity sector will not result in reduction in the level of public access to information held by that sector. [22945/97]
EU Directive (96/92/EC) concerning the internal market in electricity came into force on 19 February 1997. Ireland has to implement the directive by February 2000. It requires that approximately 28 per cent of the Irish electricity market be opened to competition at that time, increasing to about 32 per cent by 2003. This will allow independent electricity generators to contract directly with designated eligible customers (i.e. customers consuming above a specified threshold) for the supply of electricity.
Article 14 of the directive provides, inter alia, the electricity undertakings, whatever their ownership and legal form, shall draw up, submit to audit and publish their annual accounts in accordance with the rules of national law concerning the accounts of limited liability companies. Undertakings which are not legally obliged to publish their annual accounts must keep a copy of these at the disposal of the public in their head office. The directive also provides that integrated electricity undertakings shall, in their internal accounting, keep separate accounts for their generation, transmission and distribution activities, as they would be required to do if the activities in question were carried out by separate undertakings, with a view to avoiding discrimination, cross-subsidisation and distortion of competition. They are obliged to include a balance sheet and a profit and loss account of each activity in the notes to their accounts.
