Vol. 485 No. 2
112 Mr. Allen asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if she will make a statement on recent reports that Ireland has sought a special EU exemption from moves to liberalise the natural gas market to allow scope to extend supplies on the western seaboard. [22940/97]
On 8 December, 1997 the EU Council of Ministers (Energy) reached agreement on a directive concerning common rules for the internal market in natural gas. The main thrust of the directive is to introduce competition into the natural gas industry in the form of third party access to gas networks in the European Union. Consumers of large volumes of gas will have the choice of buying their gas supplies direct from gas undertakings as at present or of buying their gas from other suppliers and having the gas transmitted through the gas network for a fee.
Provision for this form of competition has already been made in the Energy (Miscelleaneous Provisions) Act, 1995, and the necessary detailed operating and pricing rules are being developed. The Act is broadly in line with the EU directive.
At the insistence of Ireland and a number of other member states, provision has been made in the directive enabling member states to apply to the European Commission for temporary derogations to encourage investment in the development and extension of the gas network to areas in which no gas infrastructure has been established or has been established for less than ten years. This provision is of relevance to areas, such as the midlands and west of Ireland, which have as yet no natural gas service.
