Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

——and minding what they have.

For many years various Ministers with responsibility for ESB and for power, decided not to sanction any increases in electricity prices to the ESB. We are now paying the price for this policy and must spend €8 billion to €10 billion to renew the whole system.

The other amendments are not accepted. They appear to have the objective of allowing EirGrid to own an interconnector which would be considered part of the transmission system. This text would not be consistent with the Electricity Regulation Act 1999 or Statutory Instrument 445 of 2000, as amended, which define the transmission system as being owned by the board of the ESB. The current text already allows for any person, including EirGrid, to own the interconnector which is not part of the transmission system. I made this announcement recently. They were progressing the development of the 500 MW east-west interconnector which on completion will be owned by EirGrid and this is facilitated by the text of the Bill as it now stands. EirGrid is independent and it controls the transmission system and it will continue to be independent in order to ensure the best possible service for consumers.

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