ESB price hike - Timing was very cynical

AS THE Dáil was winding up before going on holidays on Thursday, ESB chairman Lochlann Quinn refused to speculate about forthcoming price increases.

That was a matter for the Commission for Energy Regulation, he indicated, but he did concede that the rise would have to be on a par with increases in Britain.

Within hours of the Dáil going into recess for the summer, however, the commission announced a 17.5% hike in ESB prices from August. With the recent rise in oil prices, ESB prices were inevitably going to go up, but the manner in which this was announced makes a mockery of the system.

The raise is intended as an interim increase, with a further hike to be announced in November. These will inevitably have a drastic impact on the whole economy.

The commission was appointed by the government, supposedly to insulate its deliberations from politics, but the timing of the announcement smacked of political turpitude. The whole thing was a cynical exercise in which the commission seriously undermined any perception of independence and exposed itself as another superfluous level of bureaucracy.

The whole thing demonstrates the great need for real competition in the electricity sector.