Brussels' plans to break our monopolies- do they make sense?

[St Disibod]

The Financial Times[/url]]The European Commission wants to break the market grip of national energy incumbents, which it believes are stifling competition and deterring new market entrants, including suppliers of renewable energy.

This is what narks me most about the EU, why are they so determined to break up our monopolies?

In the context of Ireland is there any real advantage in splitting our electricity supplier or our postal services or our water supply? Multiple companies would require an overlap of services requiring a drop in overall efficiency, or reaction time if they encouraged greater centralisation of staff as a private sector company inevitably would. Instead of one ESB team per area ready to fix a fault, you would have to have as many teams as there are companies. Altenatively you could have an additional company that services all the other ones, but by the time all the money has leaked into profit margins it is hard to believe we will make overall savings.

Ditto for post and water. I'm not arguing that we should nationalise everything- we know that doesn't work- but why change models that currently work so well? As far as I know, Ireland has gone from having one of the cheapest energy supplies in Western Europe to having one of the most expensive as an intentional consequence of government policy. Why? To encourage other companies to jump in the market and introduce competition. So instead of paying x, we pay x+n, but we can choose who to pay it to. In effect we can choose to pay an additional n[size=7]1[/size], n[size=7]2[/size] or n[size=7]3[/size]; but no matter what we end up paying more for the same service.

It will also make it trickier to reign in carbon emissions and maintain other regulations on a state-wide or EU-wide scale. Is there really any overall advantage in the EU's proposed single energy market? It seems to be more expensive, less efficient, and opens even more of us to the much feared Russian grip. At its most simple level services will leak away from the tax payer and congeal as profit for shareholders, and it is fundamental services for day-to-day living that act as the medium.

Surely we should say no to the EU and no to competition on this one.

[White Horse]

Monopolies? Does this include Fianna Fail?

[codology]

certainly in the case of the post office if deregulation kicks in completley there will be a three tier service depending on where you live,it's already starting in Dublin.

[david]

For once dizzy and I seem to agree on broad points.

Here's a cheerful little article about why decisions about privatisation should not be left to the monied classes.

[feargach]

i In the context of Ireland is there any real advantage in splitting our electricity supplier or our postal services

Electricity: have you seen your bills lately?

Postal services: want to post a parcel with a value greater than €135? Better pray, because An Post refuses to insure it beyond that value.

I have no complaints about water services, and the evidence from the UK is that privatisation seems to lead to leaks not being fixed adequately and extensive bans on hosepipes.

[david]

Electricity: have you seen your bills lately?

As far as I know, Ireland has gone from having one of the cheapest energy supplies in Western Europe to having one of the most expensive as an intentional consequence of government policy. Why? To encourage other companies to jump in the market and introduce competition.

[forest]

I am still out on this but (and its part of the same thing) I want to lsee ess state protectionism (None in fact) with regards Electrica communicationsl and other companies

[St Disibod]

In the context of Ireland is there any real advantage in splitting our electricity supplier or our postal services

Electricity: have you seen your bills lately?

Postal services: want to post a parcel with a value greater than €135? Better pray, because An Post refuses to insure it beyond that value.

I have no complaints about water services, and the evidence from the UK is that privatisation seems to lead to leaks not being fixed adequately and extensive bans on hosepipes.

Electricity: david covered my back- thanks Dave.

Postal Services: Ah, but delivery of parcels of value is a very different service. And there's plenty of competition in this arena: Fed Ex, DHL and UPS and countless other smaller courier agencies. What makes a postal service different is that it has to deliver millions of letters, each of nominal value individually, right across the length and breadth of the country on a working-daily basis. Its the sum of the parts that is key, not the parts.

Indeed, there might even be a case for removing parcels from An Post all together. To deliver a package to a household during working hours, and on failing to get an answer giving the house-holder a week to collect it from some peripheral industrial esate- again during office hours- seems an utterly hopeless endeavour; and yet that is precisely what happens. But keep the postcards and bills in the postman's bag- it's surely more efficient to have one delivery per day than one delivery every time you have a letter.

I don't imagine that enough people get enough packages of a value above and beyond €135 domestically to require a similar operation of national proportion and daily frequency.

Water Services: Indeed, but it's much worse than that in Britain. The current situation drawn out looks something like this: Thames Water have a leak, so the government fines them, so Thames Water pay the fine and increase the price of their product. The government is happy- they get revenue and delegates all responsibility, inclusive of blame, onto a private operator; the company is happy as their product is costing more so enriching their profit intake without inflating their profit margin; and meanwhile the customer pays more for a deteriorating service. You would wonder whose side Brussels is on at times.

[jjacollins]

The EU is all about business, making ways for private business to prosper despite the common good.

That's it, plain and simple.

[Zeitgeist]

The EU has become a neo-liberal project. Its only purpose is the free movement of goods and labour. And therefore to compete with NAFTA and the Asian countries. Iam afraid people have to organise themselves europe wide otherwise they walk all over us. National egoism won't work.