Why are Irish energy bills still so high when oil prices are falling?

SOMETHING extraordinary happened on Friday last – no, it wasn’t temperatures here reaching into the mid-30s and, no, I didn’t join the sandals brigade who choose to wear socks with their summer footwear attire.

The cost of Brent crude dropped below its pre-Iran war levels. But did we see a massive drop in the price of either petrol or diesel? No. We never do and, God knows when, if ever, we will see energy prices here revert to pre-Iran war levels.

I got a notification from my electricity provider the other day stating that from July the cost will increase by 8%. In real terms someone, somewhere has worked out that this will mean an additional €138.24 on the average consumer’s yearly bill.

That is something I would argue about. I don’t have any major electrical appliances in my house, which unfortunately is heated by oil, but whatever I’m doing, it just appears to consume electricity at an enormous rate.

Yes, the washing machine and tumble dryer appear to be working seven days a week and, yes, I know I have been told in the past it is the tumble dryer which causes all the problems, but whenever I get my electricity bill, I swear to God, I would love to strangle the person who has devised the explanation sheet. All I see is unit cost for this time of day or unit cost for ‘smart’ use. In the end, I just give up and pay the damn thing because it is either that or live in the dark.

Don’t talk to me about ‘shopping around’ to see what else is out there because I have done that, but in the end no-one could tell me definitively if it was going to be worth my while to switch or not.

They all made statements like ‘if you do this’ or ‘if you use it at such and such a time’ you will see a difference, but what that difference would be, no-one was willing to stick their neck out and put a figure on it. In the end, I opted for the devil you know is better than the one you don’t – and ended up doing nothing.

That’s not to say I don’t give out, vent, go on a rant or whatever phrase you want to call it every time I see the electricity bill come through the letterbox or purchase home heating oil.

Thankfully, for the past few weeks there has been very little home heating oil used in my house. It’s a summer thing. The house is well insulated and practically heats itself during the mostly bright summer days. But we still need good old kerosene to heat water.

What I can tell you is that following the massive jump in price at the start of the Iran war, when everyone was afraid there was going to be no end to price increases, the cost went up by about one-third overnight. I remember one supplier telling me he had no choice but to put his prices up because he was presented with a huge increase following a delivery from the depot.

People who had paid in advance for a delivery of oil also found themselves receiving notification that their order had been cancelled and money returned and if they wished to re-order, they would have to pay the increased charge.

At that stage, the cost of a barrel of oil on the international market, often referred to as Brent, was in excess of $100 dollars. The markets, always easily spooked at the best of times, didn’t know if, or when, the market was ever going to return to normal, so naturally instinct kicked in and up went the prices.

But since a relative calm has descended on the Middle East and the Strait of Hormuz has reopened, the price of oil has nosedived and last week went below pre-Iran war levels, so why is it taking so long for us to see a reversal in prices?

We will have to listen to a lot of gobbledygook about this or that, all excuses as far as I am concerned, none of which surprised me, bearing in mind that figures last week show that Ireland is one of the most expensive countries in Europe when it comes to energy costs.

We are also ridiculously expensive for housing, groceries, entertainment, health insurance, car insurance, any kind of insurance, in fact, any kind of anything.

There are state agencies supposed to be responsible for regulating such matters, but whenever they are called upon to answer questions as to why this country is so expensive even to simply breathe, they will refer back to some data showing how they corrected something in the past but never seem to have answers about the present or the future.

Because we are usually ducking or diving between the showers, outdoor entertainment is something of a novelty in this country, so naturally any restaurant or bar with outdoor seating was packed to capacity during the mini-heatwave last week.

Sadly, we all knew the weather would revert to norm within a few days, but we also know we are paying above premium for the pizza or pint we were enjoying in the heat.

It may have reminded us of being in some far-off holiday resort, but as soon as we got the bill that smile was wiped off our faces.