The Government is to blame for ESB's plan to seek a substantial price increase, Labour and Fine Gael said today.
Labour's natural resources spokesman Mr Tommy Broughan said the ESB would be asking the regulator for permission to increase prices because the Government was extracting substantial dividends from the company.
"The ESB will now have handed over in excess of €100 million in dividends to the Exchequer over the past two years. If this revenue had been allowed to remain within the company, clearly the demand for price increases could have been averted," Mr Broughan said.
He said the Minster for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Ahern, was being "cynical and hypocritical" by suggesting earlier today that the ESB should save money through internal efficiencies.
The company has already shed 1,100 jobs and plans to further reduce staff levels 500 by the end of the year and is now seeking its third price increase in less than two years.
Fine Gael's spokesperson Mr Simon Coveney echoed Mr Ahern's contention that the company should make internal savings but he also blamed the Government for the slow pace of deregulation in the sector.
"The only way the public and business in Ireland will see electricity price reductions in the future is if the Government adopts a more aggressive approach towards deregulating the electricity market," Mr Coveney said.
"It also has to be asked why the price increase is being passed on by a company that last year made a profit of €249 million," he added.
At the publication of the ESB's annual report today, the company's chairman, Mr Tadhg O'Donoghue, said a modest increase would not be sufficient to address the "dramatic increase in oil, gas and coal prices over the past six months".
He also announced an increase in after-tax profits of €89 million to €249 million for 2003.