Energy

Government departments pushed regulator to drop €100m energy levy on big businesses

The Commission for Energy Regulation scrapped its plan for tariffs on certain companies in the face of outside pressure

Intel’s plant in Leixlip was to shoulder a large part of the tariff as a heavy energy user

Ibec, the business lobby group, warned the government that a “hefty” state aid package for big businesses would be needed to offset the energy regulator’s plan to impose €100 million in emergency tariffs on large energy-using companies last winter.

In correspondence with the Department of Enterprise last September about the proposals, which had been tabled by the Commission for Regulation of Utilities (CRU), Ibec said Ireland’s regulatory regime for large energy-using companies had “serious shortcomings”.