Sir, – Just to get this straight: as tax payers we bail out banks when they make bad decisions, but when we bail out consumers as a result of high energy prices, and energy companies still make super-normal profits, we as a State do nothing? – Yours, etc,
JOHN O’CONNELL,
Letterkenny,
Co Donegal.
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Sir, – We have been told that increases in the retail prices consumers pay for energy have been driven by increases in the cost of energy from wholesale energy markets.
If that’s the case, wouldn’t one expect the profits made by energy companies to be unchanged? Yet they are all reporting massively increased profits!
What am I missing, or is this just a rip-off? – Yours, etc,
ROGER A BLACKBURN,
Naul,
Co Dublin.
Sir, – Energy suppliers are inviting us to believe that we cannot expect to see recent reductions in wholesale prices reflected in our bills for about 18 months. The explanation for this disappointing news is that they buy supplies forward and are tied into higher wholesale prices that prevailed over the past year or so.
There was no such waiting period a year ago when wholesale prices were on the way up. The effect on our electricity and gas bills was almost instantaneous.
I think the fool or knave theory must be at work here. Either the bright people in our energy companies who buy supplies forward as a hedge against price fluctuations do so only when prices are sky high and not when prices are low. Or we are being taken for a ride? – Yours, etc,
PAT O’BRIEN,
Rathmines,
Dublin 6.
