Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

I wish to clarify for the Deputy that the Government has no intention of disposing of Bord Gáis Éireann. The State asset disposal programme that I announced last February refers only to Bord Gáis Éireann's energy generation and supply business. I made it clear at the time that the rest of the group, which consists of the gas transmission and distribution systems and the two gas interconnectors, will remain in State ownership.

In deciding that the new Irish Water utility will be an independent State-owned subsidiary of the group, the Government's intention was that a number of key synergies would be achieved between the gas and the water utilities core network functions, such as operating in a regulated environment, network management, metering and utility operation systems. These core functions will not be impacted by the sale of Bord Gáis Energy, which is a separate business within the group and which operates under a separate management team. I do not, therefore, propose to exclude Bord Gáis Energy from the disposal programme.

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