Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

Amendment No. 57 is not accepted because it is not required. EirGrid is defined in Statutory Instrument 445 of 2000 and it does not require to be further clarified in this Bill. It is the transmission system operator. The Deputy's amendment, like the other amendments, may be designed to make EirGrid the owner of the transmission system.

If I was starting out to design an electricity or a grid system for the country at this stage on a plain sheet of paper, I certainly would not design the one we have where the major utility company, the semi-State company, ESB, owns the transmission and distribution lines and most of the power generation. This makes it very difficult to introduce competition to the market.

EirGrid is independent of the ESB in its role and function. It may not own the transmission system but it controls it and this is important. There was a perception in the past that it was the downtown branch of the ESB. This perception may persist until it moves to its new headquarters and is physically separated from ESB because currently it operates from the same building as ESB. I wish to make it clear that since 1 July 2006, EirGrid has been vested as a separate company. It is in control of the transmission system and it has responsibility for the use of the system and for keeping CER informed about adequacy of supply to the best of its ability.

In those circumstances, the type of ideological hang-up that some people have of not transferring the actual ownership of the transmission lines to EirGrid, is very difficult to understand. The only explanation I can give is that there are people in the ESB, both in management and in the trade unions, who think the company may be privatised at some stage in the future and they will receive a big lump of money out of it——

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