Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

The ESB debt is approximately €2 billion. I remember when the Minister's predecessor, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Deputy Dermot Ahern, told the House excitedly of the ESB's negotiation of favourable loan terms in New York to address a large tranche of the debt. What will happen to the debt and the ESB's financial controls if the Minister proceeds with his policy of removing an asset worth at least €1 billion? Must there be a major renegotiation of the debt and will the ESB's credit standing be damaged?

The Minister said he met representatives of the ATGWU, SIPTU, UCATT and Amicus this morning to start discussing this policy with them. What will happen to the workforce? How many workers are involved? I understand that approximately 700 workers are directly involved in the transmission sector but the Minister has contradicted that number which was given to me by senior ESB management on the day on which he presented the White Paper to them in the Royal Irish Academy. What will be the fate of those workers in relation to the employee share ownership trust?

I was present in the Department of the Taoiseach last October when the Minister published the Green Paper on Energy Policy. On that occasion he said quite categorically that any break-up of the ESB would lead to higher prices and could cause long-term damage to the security of Irish energy supplies. What has changed in the last four or five months to cause him to change his mind?

Energy prices have skyrocketed since 2000, during the term of office of this Administration.

See this speech in context