Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

No. Let me be crystal clear, the new State company, Irish Water, will, as far as the Government and I are concerned, be a wholly State owned company per omnia saecula saeculorum. This will be enshrined in specific legislation to be introduced. Irish Water will be a State company providing water in an integrated manner across the State. It is wholly different from the sale of the energy generating component of BGE. We want to keep the expertise that set up and developed BGE and to use it in setting up the next fine State company. Things are not set in aspic. The next major State company, the biggest since the ESB was founded, will be Irish Water. Bord Gáis Eireann, in terms of its level of expertise in managing a publicly owned company with a distribution, billing and metering system, has the management structure which the Government wants to roll out over time - it will be years before all of this is put in place properly - the new Irish Water company. That is the logic behind it.

The parallel issue of setting up competition within the energy sector, which the energy generating component of BGE will provide as competition for the wholly State owned ESB, will also be good for the consumer.

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