Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

Deputy Ryan and the Minister are ideologically motivated and both are coming from a conservative philosophy. If one looks at the history of the ESB, it is probably the most historic and valuable State agency in the history of the State. One would have to say it has always been as much a transmission and distribution company as an electricity generation one. There was generating potential at Ardnacrusha and elsewhere, and water generated electricity was a huge component of our electricity supply when a good chunk of the country did not have electricity, and that was a recent as the mid-1950s.

The distribution and transmission elements and the workforce in the company could be seen as the heart of the ESB. At 5.20 p.m. yesterday, a time when none of us could respond, the Minister announced that the Cabinet had approved the Single Electricity Market Bill. As a single market takes effect, will the ESB's generation assets not be below 60%? Will the RSI index not get smaller and less influential as additional generation comes on stream? Will we not be left with the ESB as largely a transmission and distribution company?

A huge tranche of the Minister's party is Progressive Democrats-oriented and is happy in the embrace of the Tánaiste, Deputy McDowell.

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