Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
BORD GÁIS HAS rejected claims from the Association of Plumbing & Heating Contractors of Ireland (APHCI) that it employs “anti-competitive and unfair pricing policies”.
The APHCI says they “are seeing local contractors being forced out of the gas heating market and Irish consumers being charged up to €1,000 more for gas installations” and has written to Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia to highlight their concerns.
Bord Gais said that Bord Gáis Energy’s Home Services entered the boiler installation market in mid 2010, and has built up an approximate market share of 10 per cent.
Bord Gáis Energy operates on a commercial basis and competes in this highly competitive market by offering best in class service and safety standards, as well as unique and innovative interest-free financing options to our customers.
The CER, through the RGI, is responsible for safety and Bord Gáis Energy operates to the very highest standards within the legal framework as set out. The company only engages with RGI compliant installers and has a robust quality audit programme.
It noted that finance is only available to the customer, and that a company called Sierra is the service provider that bills Bord Gáis for the labour costs of installing the boiler.
The APHCI says that under Sierra, independent and local contractors can no longer offer customers access to the Bord Gais billing system.
APHCI Chair Sean Giffney called on Bord Gais chief John Mullins to introduce a finance scheme with immediate effect that would be open to all contractors and would allow for free and fair competition in the market place.
The organisation said it had brought the issue to the attention of the government but has not had any success to date, so has formally written to Minister Almunia.
It will also formally complain to the Competition Authority and is calling on the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Natural Resources and Agriculture to investigate the issue in Dáil Éireann.
Giffney claimed that:
The gas boiler installation market is worth €71.5m annually and it is now estimated that 60 per cent of this market is being driven onto the black market as people cannot afford Bord Gais’s prices
Electric Ireland and Airtricity also offer similar services to Bord Gáis for the installation of gas at home.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Not to worry, the Queen and Obama’s visit should kick extra tourism into gear any time now.. Lol
These figures and a decline in exports are the start of a further decline in economic activity.
The next Exchequer returns for the jan mar period will see a reduction in spend thus proving austerity is forcing the economy into a depression.
This allied to a budget taking 3.5 billion
out will lead to a bleak 2011/12
Part of the decrease may have to do with a slowdown in emigration also.
Please tell me you mean immigration Noel? ;)
What? People AREN’T going on holidays in the winter?
And partly the impact of circa 15 flights in and 15 flights out of the Galway Airport that are no more
The useless DAA should sell the old terminal building in Cork airport to Ryanair. Let them make a regional hub out of it like they wanted to do when the new one opened and then we’ll see the numbers rise…at the moment its just sitting there empty…lateral thinking is needed.
The decline in movements doesn’t necessarily correspond to passenger decline.
The Cork decline looks bad, but amounts to 6 movements a day. Then you look at what those movements were.
The Manx2 flight to Belfast, which was canned after the crash, accounted for 4 of them, yet the plane only had a capacity of 19 and usually carried 10-15 people.
Also gone are the Air SouthWest flights to Newquay and Plymouth after the airline ceased operating. Their aircraft would have been the same size that Aer Arann use.
And then there seem to be fewer ski charters.
Passenger numbers are only down by 2%, despite the large fall in flight movements.
These figures refer to number of flights – not necessarily the number of passengers. Airlines may be running less flights with higher passenger loads, or bigger aircraft.
have your say