The State body responsible for regulating the country's energy industry lost close to €850,000 last year, according to its annual report. Barry O'Halloran reports.
The Commission for Energy Regulation (CER) had net income of €8.9 million in 2005, compared with €7.9 million the previous year.
However, increased costs left the commission with a shortfall of €844,577 at the end of the year, compared with a surplus of €780,211 in 2004.
The figures in its annual report show that the organisation spent €4.775 million on professional and consultancy fees in 2005, a 60 per cent increase on the €3 million it spent the previous year.
Its wage bill increased by €600,000 to €3.5 million. Of this, the three commissioners, chairman Tom Reeves, Michael Tutty and Regina Finn, shared €492,573.
The accounts also show that its pension liabilities almost doubled during 2005 to €2.9 million from €1.5 million a year earlier.
Despite the losses, surpluses generated during the previous years ensured that the CER remained in the black at the end of the year.
The accounts show that it declared an operating surplus of €2.3 million on December 31st, compared with €3.2 million 12 months earlier.
The commission's end of year statement points out that 2005 was the first year of full liberalisation in the Republic's electricity market.
However, it states that there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure that all sectors of the market benefit from competition.
"There is no doubt that competition and customer switching activity is healthy in certain sectors of the market, particularly amongst medium to large industrial and commercial customers," the report states.
"But the challenge is to ensure that all sectors of the market, including residential customers, are offered real choice through market liberalisation."
The report says that developing an all-island energy market will be central to achieving this. The commission has been working on this with the Northern Ireland Authority for Energy Regulation since late 2004. It says that both sides are on target to achieve a single market by mid-2007.
