Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 62:

In page 19, line 38, after "Commission" to insert the following:

", sanctioned by the Minister, and approved by a motion of Dáil Éireann".

I wonder if the Minister would examine the possibility of taking this amendment on board. It would be a painless exercise in the sense that it would be a meeting of minds in the House. It would recognise a principle we have spoken of quite a bit with regard to this particular piece of legislation.

Ironically, when I tabled this amendment we did not have the debate over price rises and decisions taken by regulators etc. that has taken place in the past few weeks. The relevant section of the Bill reads:

Section 16 of the Act of 1999 is amended—

(a) by the substitution for subsection (1) of the following subsection:

"(1) A person shall not—

(a) construct or reconstruct a generating station for the purpose of supply to final customers, or

(b) construct an interconnector,

unless an appropriate authorisation has been granted to the person by the Commission.",

I propose to add ", sanctioned by the Minister, and approved by a motion of Dáil Éireann".

This area could become very controversial at a later stage. The commission is independent in making decisions, but the approval should come from the Minister and the Houses of the Oireachtas. In that context, it would lend authority and strength to the Bill. It would not in any way interfere with the independence of the commission, but it would, importantly, give political direction to what will essentially be a political issue, namely the availability of adequate supply, be it gas, electricity etc. It would be useful to add that particular amendment and this was the most appropriate place I could think of inserting it. I hope the Minister consider to what extent he can accommodate it.

I do not wish to revisit the previous debate on Eircom. We should have been able to do something, but we were unable to do anything because it was all outside our control. It was outside the Minister's control, and nothing could be done about it. He could not reach out and get hold of the part of the infrastructure, the main framework of the communications section.

This section states:

(1) A person shall not—

(a) construct or reconstruct a generating station for the purpose of supply to final customers, or

(b) construct an interconnector,

These are two very important areas. I would like to hear the Minister's views on the subject.

See this speech in context