Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

They have been two long minutes that will come to an end shortly. As Deputy Broughan suggested, in a totally privatised situation the transmission, as part of the grid, could be controlled by the same people, which would not necessarily be in the best interests of all concerned. The ideal is to generate competition between the public and private sectors and ensure the fundamental infrastructure is controlled by the State so it cannot be hijacked and sold to another party which, in turn, will hijack the whole population and the economy.

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