CER spent €19m on consultants in four years

ALMOST €19 million has been spent by the Commission for Energy Regulation on consultants in the last four years.

Spending by the watchdog on consultants fees was €6.2m in 2006, an increase of nearly €1.5m in the 2005 figure.

The CER’s annual report for the year shows that €4.7m of the total spent went on consultants on the electricity market.

The CER’s major project over the last few years has been preparing for the all island single electricity market, which came into being last week.

A further €1.5m was spent on consultants advising on the gas sector.

The combined expenditure on consultants by the CER totalled €7.85m in 2003 and 2004.

Last year the fees paid to external consultants as the biggest outlay by the CER.

Its income for the year was €16.2m, an 81% increase on the previous year.

The CER is financed by a levy on players in the electricity and gas market. The bulk of this is paid by the ESB and Bord Gáis.

Income from electricity companies was €14.6m in the year, while €1.53m was paid out by companies in the gas market.

The increasing income, despite higher staff costs and the cost of the consultants, meant the CER recorded an operating surplus of €5.7m in 2006.

Staff costs for the year increased to €4m from €3.4m. The number of people employed by the CER rose by 16 to 63.

Pension costs for employees rose to €753,000 from €459,000.

The annual report also states that the CER’s pension fund reversed an actuarial loss of €1.43m in 2005 to a €61,000 gain.

Salaries for the three members of the Commission — Tom Reeves, Michael Tutty and Regina Finn — came to €503,049. Ms Finn resigned in mid-September 2006 to take up the chief executive role at Britain’s water industry watchdog Ofwat.