Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)

I wish to briefly comment on each of the four or five main items included in this special addition to the miscellaneous Bill. It truly has turned into a miscellaneous Bill.

I will first deal with the capital stock in Bord Gáis Éireann. It is appropriate and welcome that we are incentivising employees within State companies on a performance basis with regard to their work. I have a concern as to how employee share ownership plans have developed in this country. We have seen two recent examples, in Eircom and Aer Lingus, where ESOPs were introduced to smooth the way towards privatisation, and both cases have clearly been disastrous for the long-term welfare of the interests of the people.

I ask the Minister to be very clear in outlining the State's role with regard to providing ESOPs. It should not be something which would open the door, in the long run, to privatisation. It should be an end in itself to incentivise work.

What indication is there to the value of the capital stock of the company and the individual value to any worker? Bord Gáis Éireann is a company with very valuable assets and a relatively small workforce. How close does the Minister believe we will be to the €38,000 per employee limit, which has been set in giving a 5% shareholding to the company? If the Minister of State cannot provide any figures today, perhaps they could be provided in writing to me and to other Deputies on this side of the House. I would appreciate that.

I welcome the increased borrowing limit with regard to Bord na Móna. It is important to have companies like Bord na Móna, which have started to be creative and inventive in investing in new biomass and other renewable energy facilities. I lament that the company, for whatever reason, has been stalled over the five years I have been in this position, calling for action such as the co-firing of power generation. We must begin cutting out peat because of climate change and we should instead turn to burning biomass.

One of the symbols of the general inactivity in the Government in the area of development of renewable energies has been the failure to develop our biomass technologies. If this increased lending facility to Bord na Móna is to facilitate that, I support it.

In covering the area of energy in this Dáil session, one of the most memorable moments for me is standing on the tailing pond at Silvermines. It is a pond covering approximately 55 acres, which is still a liquid——

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