About 150 medium-sized industrial gas users will be able to procure gas from independent suppliers next January after the Government moved yesterday to open more of the market to competition.
The decision by the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Dermot Ahern, brings to 250 the number of gas users who are not obliged to deal exclusively with Bord Gáis.
Mr Ahern said the Republic would be the fifth most open gas market in the EU after the change, which means that three-quarters of all industrial users will be in the eligible market.
The development emerged as EU energy ministers agreed yesterday to set a deadline of July 2007 for opening up the entire European energy market to competition. "This decision will lead to lower energy prices," said Mr Bendt Bendtsen, the Danish minister who chaired the meeting.
He said it would encourage economic growth, while reinforcing the position of EU energy companies.
Opening up gas and electricity markets has long been an objective of the European Commission, which wants to open state monopolies to competition and foster cross-border supply.
The objective was part of the EU programme for economic reform introduced in Lisbon in 2000. But at successive European summits, the French government has obstructed attempts to set a deadline to open its domestic market, on which Eléctricité de France and Gaz de France dominate.
The French fought off a Commission proposal yesterday requiring that market-opening for business and other non-household users should be completed by the start of 2004, and for household users by the start of 2005. This matched the Irish position.
