Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 14 January 2015
964. Deputy Seamus Kirk asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources due to the decrease in the value of natural resources, including oil and gas, if this reduction will be passed on to domestic customers of fuel, including for home heating; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1710/15]
View answerThe Irish oil industry is fully privatised, liberalised and deregulated and there is free entry to the market. There is no price control in the oil sector and it is Government policy to encourage price competition and consumer choice. Responsibility for gas market regulation is a matter for the Commission for Energy Regulation. As such, I have no statutory function in the setting of gas, oil, petrol or diesel prices. The competitive energy market results in choices for consumers and businesses in terms of suppliers, products and prices and exerts downward pressure on prices. Consumers can try to mitigate electricity prices by shopping around to get the best possible price and service deal from suppliers. Measures such as comparison websites, approved by the CER, exist to assist them in this endeavour.
The CER is focussed on actions that can mitigate costs for business and domestic customers, including rigorous regulatory scrutiny of the network costs component of retail prices.
The latest EUROSTAT figures, published by the SEAI on the 9 December 2014 show all business consumption bands in both electricity and gas experienced reductions in average prices in the first half of 2014, ranging from 0.7% to 4% in electricity and 6.7% to 12.9% in gas.
Similarly, EUROSTAT figures show a reduction of 5.7% in the average price of gas in the residential consumption band with the largest share of the market, while the average price of electricity in the residential consumption band with the largest share experienced a reduction of 1.3%.
Households can also reduce their energy costs by being energy efficient. There are energy efficiency measures to assist business and domestic energy consumers, with significant funding allocated to them.
There is a role for the Consumer and Competition Commission in ensuring that markets are functioning well and that consumers are not being disadvantaged. Previous investigations and surveys into oil prices, including home heating oil, have been undertaken by the National Consumer Agency (now the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission), and these are available at www.ccpc.ie. Home heating oil surveys have been carried out by the National Consumer Agency on a regular basis. The latest heating oil survey indicated variations in price and the Agency encouraged consumers to shop around and get a number of quotes. The research indicates that the price paid by consumers is largely determined by taxation levels, the internationally traded price of crude oil and the consequent price at which refined product is traded in Europe, along with the level of competition in the retail market.
The European Commission maintains a Statistics and Market Observatory, which presents consumer prices and net prices (excluding duties and taxes) of petroleum products in EU Member States (known as the Oil Bulletin) on a weekly basis. The Oil Bulletin is designed to improve the transparency of oil prices and to strengthen the internal market. The relevant link is:
http://ec.europa.eu/energy/observatory/oil/bulletin_en.htm.
