MINISTER FOR Energy Eamon Ryan has been urged to postpone a planned increase in electricity prices, due to come into effect in October.
Fine Gael energy spokesman Leo Varadkar said yesterday that the 5 per cent price increase was a direct result of the policies being pursued by the Green Party Minister.
Mr Varadkar called on Mr Ryan to postpone the introduction of a €157 million levy that will push up electricity bills for households and businesses.
“Responsibility for this price hike lies firmly with the Minister, Eamon Ryan,” Mr Varadkar said. “The regulator’s only role is to calculate the levy based on his policies.
Consumers and business are going to have to pay the bill for Eamon Ryan’s green energy revolution and his unwillingness to squeeze the ESB.”
The energy regulator last week published details of a public service obligation (PSO) levy that amounts to €157 million. This levy is expected to result in electricity price rises of between 4 and 5 per cent from next October. The levy will apply to all electricity customers, not just the ESB.
The measure was introduced by the Government to improve the country’s security of energy supply and at developing the renewable electricity sector.
The levy will be used to offset the costs faced by electricity producers who are obliged to buy a certain proportion of renewable and peat-generated electricity.
A spokesperson for Mr Ryan or the Commission for Energy Regulation was unavailable for comment last night.
Mr Varadkar said the news that electricity prices were to rise had come as a shock to hard-pressed consumers and businesses and was particularly unfair to the low-paid and to elderly people as it would be imposed as a flat rate on all domestic consumers, regardless of how much energy they used.
“A granny living on her own using very little electricity will pay the same amount as somebody who leaves their boiler on all day,” Mr Varadkar said.
Businesses would be horrified to see electricity prices going up again as Ireland already had the third-highest electricity prices in the euro zone.
“I think people will be particularly angry that the ESB will be the main beneficiary of the levy and will get €85.5 million from it in a full year, given that the company reported profits of over €500 million only last week.”
He called on the Minister to devise a statutory instrument that would postpone the introduction of the levy pending a full review of the situation.
Labour Party spokeswoman on energy Liz McManus said the move was “bad news for business and bad news for consumers”.
“At a time when hundreds of thousands of households have been put to the pin of their collar as a result of job losses or reduction in income, and when businesses are finding it more and more difficult to keep their heads above water, this makes no sense.” Ms McManus said much more needed to be done to promote energy efficiency programmes. Of €95 million that was set aside for efficiency programmes in 2009, just €55 million was spent. The remainder, she said, was returned to the Department of Finance.
“These energy efficiency schemes were put in place to help people insulate their homes and reduce their energy bills. This would have resulted in lower emissions for the State and helped put unemployed construction workers back to work.”
Ms McManus said it was time to examine the impact energy costs were having on smaller businesses such as hotels and guest houses.