Updated, 16.18

BORD GAIS has today taken delivery of 380 deluxe office chairs, each costing several hundred euro – just four weeks after being granted permission to raise gas prices by 22 per cent.

These photographs, taken by reader Alex French this morning, show the chairs being unloaded in their dozens off an articulated lorry outside Bord Gais Energy’s new premises at Warrington Place, along Dublin’s Grand Canal.

The chairs are from Herman Miller’s Aeron line – with pricing (in North America at least) starting at a cool $970 each.

In one photograph, exactly 100 chairs are shown stacked outside the building, ready to be brought inside – while in a previous shot, dozens more were already crowding the lobby having been unpacked.

Meanwhile, the truck delivering the luxury ergonomic chairs is pictured holding dozens more chairs – with hundreds more being brought inside the offices.

This afternoon a Bord Gais Energy spokesman said the company had bought 380 of the chairs, as it was fitting out its new premises ahead of a staff move next week.

The company had issued an EU-wide tender for the supply of the chairs, it said, and bought them from an Irish supplier at a “significant” discount.

While Bord Gais Energy declined to say how much it had spent on them, TheJournal.ie sourced a quote from the same supplier that BGE had used – and who said a similar order would cost almost €300,000.

The chairs are delivered just four weeks after the Commission for Energy Regulation gave it clearance to raise gas prices by 22 per cent – an increase which fell short of the company’s demand for a 28 per cent increase.

Three months ago, the company confirmed that 115,000 domestic customers were in arrears on their accounts – while government stats showed that over 1,600 customers had their domestic gas connections cut off in the first half of 2011.

This afternoon a Bord Gais Energy spokesman said the company had bought 380 of the chairs, as it was fitting out its new premises ahead of a staff move next week.

The company had issued an EU-wide tender for the supply of the chairs, it said, and bought them from an Irish supplier at a “significant” discount.

Now find out how much Bord Gais Energy spent on them >