Businesses' energy bills have risen by an aggregate of €1 billion per year over the last three years, the organisation that represents large high-tech employers claimed yesterday.

ICT Ireland, the body that represents the information and communications technology sector, including major employers like Microsoft and Intel, said yesterday that since 2003, energy bills have jumped from €3 billion to €4 billion.

The group's claim comes after recent price increases announced by Bord Gáis and the ESB.

"Since 2003, gas prices have increased by over 50 per cent, electricity prices by about 25 per cent and diesel oil by 40 per cent," the group said in a statement.

ICT warned that rising energy costs and inflation mean that employers will face some difficult years unless the Government takes "swift action".

The group's director, Kathryn Raleigh, said that cost of doing business in the Republic had increased dramatically in the last few years. She added that recent enery price hikes were aggravating this problem.

"Industry has been waiting for years for the Government to publish a comprehensive strategy and is still waiting."

She called on the Government to publish its national energy policy immediately and demanded that it introduce meaningful competition.

"With costs rising at such a rate, we run the risk of eroding our competitive position and losing our attractiveness as a location of choice for mobile investment," she said.

"According to an Ibec business costs survey in April this year, overall non-pay business costs for the high-tech sector increased by over 12 per cent between 2003 and 2005."