Seán Ó Fearghaíl (Kildare South, Fianna Fail)

Of course, the first recourse of householders is to public representatives. When lights fail to be turned on, it is the public representative, not the ESB, that is blamed. The repairs, or lack thereof, are a running sore across my constituency. I am aware of failed public lights being left for over a year without a visit from a repair crew. A town in my constituency waited for more than 18 months before a set of traffic signals installed by the local authority were eventually connected. These lights service a local health centre and it is absolutely unbelievable that this seemingly straightforward task would take such a period of time to be completed.

Yet another example from my constituency is the case of a primary school where the flashing lights at a pedestrian crossing still have not been connected more than two years after the completion of the civil works by the local authority. I doubt if the Minister of State or anyone else could tell me why that should happen. It is not acceptable and is not the type of service we would have got from the ESB in the past.

The delivery of this important Bill cannot come soon enough and I am confident that we will have a streamlined and efficient generation policy when this process is complete. I think it was Deputy Eamon Ryan who suggested that those on this side of the Border could benefit from the expertise and experience we will collaborate with in the North and I endorse that. However, I equally suspect that the cross-fertilisation of ideas will be of benefit to all. I am encouraged that work in this area has already commenced with yesterday's announcement of an agreement between the energy regulator and the ESB which will allow for the sale of a number of power generating plants to the private sector. In return, the ESB will build a new 400 megawatt power station in the south of the country. According to the regulator, the ESB will account for only 40% of the all-Ireland generation capacity by 2010. This will be a remarkable change in such a limited time and will obviously require the goodwill of all partners in the sector, not least the trade union movement.

In a very short timeframe we have moved to a position where we are now looking at taking the first step towards creating a seamless energy market on this island with the establishment of the single electricity market next year. A great slogan once said "a lot done, more to do"——

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