ESB say they can reduce prices - if they were allowed!

mike65

Its being discussed among other matters on Right Hook now.

Mike.

Colonel Sanders

€223m in profit last year, what a joke. Why was a rise of over 12% necessary in the first quarter of this year seeing as gas prices came down?

Imagine what could be done if they stopped wasting the 100m per year that deloitte found!

antoinolachtnai

That's a low enough profit level for a company with so much plant. These assets need to be replaced and cash is required to cover their replacement. The profits include a deduction for depreciation, for sure, but the depreciation will be less than the cost of replacement, because of wage inflation.

Colonel Sanders

why is a semi state body run to make a profit? Surely thats another form of indirect taxation?

antoinolachtnai

Not really, profit accrues to taxpayer. Profit doesn't necessarily need cash. Typically you need to make a profit of your asset value multiplied by inflation (so for example 1 billion euros x 5 percent = 50 million euros) in order to be able to replace your current assets. Also, you need to generate profits to reinvest in the business to do things like building new plants.

jimmycrackcorm

Colonel Sanders wrote:

€223m in profit last year, what a joke. Why was a rise of over 12% necessary in the first quarter of this year seeing as gas prices came down?

Imagine what could be done if they stopped wasting the 100m per year that deloitte found!

They'll need a lot more to build a nuclear power station in Bannagher.

5h4mr0(k

They say that they could reduce the prices If they were allowed. Fair enough - they can still charge the same price per unit, but why don't they then go and give everyone a credit on their bill, roughly inequivalent to the 10% they claim they want to reduce it by.

They have the power to give discounts on bills.