Bord Gais / ESB ? What's it all about?

JonathanAnon

Sick of listening to that smug bint Lucy Kennedy going on about people who are made of money if they dont switch to Bord Gais. But what the hell is it all about?

Two state bodies selling the same product, competing with each other for advertising. What is in this for the tax payers? We certainly must be made of money if we can afford this.

It just doesnt make sense for me that the state pumps money in to another state body to reduce the price for a product already being sold by another. Is there some greater reason why they are doing this?

mike65

Eh? They are commerical bodies, the gubberment hasn't put a penny into either for years AFAIK.

JonathanAnon

Well I had a friend working in the ESB a while back, and they split the National Grid into a separate private company, but I thought the rest belonged to the state.

And as far as Bord Gais was concerned, I thought the word Bord implied that it was state owned.

I could be wrong of course, it's happened once before.

mike65

Well they are run on purely commerical lines while being ownedby ther state, pretty sure they are even allowed to put money in these days cos there is a market (Airtricity for example being private)

Mario007

i'd suggest selling off ESB, we have Board Gais which can regulate the prices of electricity should they rise too high so why have 2 state agencies selling the same product?

lostexpectation

all these people cheering on enrons for ireland

Moriarty

Electricity prices have been artificially increased over the past decade in order to create a margin under which other companies could enter the electricity market and compete with the ESB. That's official government policy, enacted through the energy regulator. I have an inkling that this was enduced by EU competition rules originally, but I'm open to correction on that and how much of an impact this had on the present government policy. From what I know of it, it's a pretty ridiculous policy for Ireland, but there you go.

Seperately, Board Gais have been attempting to diversify their interests recently from the narrow perspective of a gas provider to a broader energy company.

Both companies are semi-state and as such operate on a commercial basis for profit. I don't know what amount, if any, has been paid from the government in to either of these companies in the past decade or more, however I suspect it's minimal.

Joey the lips

Its a simple case of competition. The gas co. has the right to sell electricity due to competition. Granted its only 12-14% which equates to around 15 euro a month but it pays half you life insurence policy.

I do agree if the goverment is putting money into both these organisations we are effectivly competin with ourselves

loobylou

ESB produce and sell the electricity. Bord gas also sell electricity produced by ESB. Bord Gas employ extra staff to handle their electricity sales section. Esb let none of their staff go despite selling less electricity.
Result, the same amount of electricity gets sold, at a lesser price, with more people employed.
Lets do that for the rest of the economy!!:rolleyes:

oldyouth

All State/Semi State organisations that supply goods or services should be run as if they are independant commercial companies. They should be competing like flip with eachother, trimming costs and improving service to the customer. This will lead to increased profits and THAT is what is in it for the taxpayer. Please God, we are soon to be rid of the last pockets within the various State bodies, where they were run by the workers for the workers and screw the public

bungler

i would also suggest that Bord Gáis is selling electricity because the government is aware of 2 other companies selling electricity in ireland and possibly they wanted to make sure that the 2 state companies dominate the market,

i heard about a russian comany who entered into the spanish market and brought over thousands of russian staff made billions and took all the profits and legged back to russia with the profits.

anywho i like the Bord gais offer at least they are secure, i went with airtricity for my business and it was the worst thing i ever did,my heart was broken with hassle