Denis Naughten (Roscommon-South Leitrim, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Bill. I congratulate Deputy Flanagan on his maiden speech in the new allocated slot for Others. We hope to use it frequently.

The issue of broadband is close to my heart and I am surprised no mention of Aurora Telecom, which is owned by Bord Gáis, is made in the legislation. It owns a huge fibre-optic cable network throughout the country and is a major strategic asset. I hope we can revisit it before the legislation is passed. It is my firm belief that we need to knock heads together quickly with regard to the fact that we have five State-owned public fibre networks but they are not connected to one another. If they were connected we would have a half-decent broadband network.

The onus and responsibility lies on the Minister of State's Department to get all of those people around the table and ensure there is one semi-State company that can wholesale the fibre network. I would hope that fibre network remains in public ownership, along with Aurora Telecom. It is an issue we will be debating later this year with another piece of promised legislation, and I hope this can be incorporated into that forthcoming legislation.

I welcome the opportunity to speak on this Bill and I do not have a difficulty in principle with where the Government is going in this regard. I have a number of concerns, some of which I will raise today and some of which I hope to raise at committee. However, I do not disagree with the principle because the objective behind it is to generate money that we can invest back into jobs.

One issue that came to light in recent days, which I hope the Minister of State, Deputy O'Dowd, can take up, is an initiative which is in place across the Border in Northern Ireland and in Britain. The initiative provides interest-free business loans where a company is investing in new equipment which has low carbon emissions. This gives a huge incentive to businesses to reduce their carbon footprint and increase their efficiency. I have been talking recently to one energy user in my constituency, a business which employs 60 people. It could increase its job numbers by ten tomorrow morning if it could have access to a similar loan scheme on this side of the Border. That is just one business. There would be a huge knock-on impact, not just in regard to job creation but also in regard to carbon emissions. As we know, carbon taxes are increasing incrementally, which is a further cost on doing business in this country. Pretty much every country in Europe except this jurisdiction has a similar mechanism. Many businesses, when they go abroad or are dealing with companies that sell such equipment, cannot understand why we have not got an incentive scheme like this here. I urge the Minister of State to look at the 0% business loans scheme for carbon reduction that is in place in the UK, to go across the Border to see what is happening and to take that initiative on board.

The main reason I want to speak on the Bill is that I believe we need to see a clear plan for the investment that is to be generated from the disposal of this asset. Much, or at least some, of that investment needs to be ring-fenced to invest back into infrastructure, in particular gas infrastructure. I hope the Government will ensure, before the passage of this legislation, that a portion of the dividend from the sale of Bord Gáis Éireann is ring-fenced specifically for the expansion of the gas network. I mention this on behalf of some of my colleagues, including Deputies Joe O'Reilly and Michael Colreavy, who come from a part of the country which does not have access to gas - the north west.

If one looks at the Bord Gáis Éireann network, one will see a big vacant area in the north west where there is no access to gas. In my own constituency, when an assessment was carried out, the town of Carrick-on-Shannon was marginally outside the requirements for getting gas. It would save businesses in Carrick-on-Shannon €7 million every year if gas was available in that town. Consider the boost that would give employment in the town of Carrick-on-Shannon alone. It would have a similar impact in Sligo and, again in my own constituency, it would save €2.5 million each year for businesses in Ballaghaderreen, €200,000 for businesses in Boyle, €1 million for businesses in Roscommon town and some €125,000 for businesses in Strokestown. That is a direct incentive to maintain employment in those regions and also to create new employment.

At the moment, thankfully, some 625 jobs a week are being created, and the Government is to be commended on that - well done to it. The difficulty, however, is that they are being created on the east coast, particularly around Dublin. All one has to do is go outside of this building any day of the week we are here, such as a Tuesday or Wednesday night, and one will see that this city is hopping with young people who are in employment. That is great to see but, sadly, when one goes outside of the Dublin catchment, one sees that every other town in the country is literally being decimated. This roll-out of the gas network would help to equalise that and would help to maintain existing jobs in the provincial towns across the north west, and it would be an added incentive with regard to bringing new investment to those regions.

It is of the utmost importance that part of the funding from the disposal of this company is specifically ring-fenced for that purpose. If we could get gas into the north west, it would save industrial and commercial users there about €17 million every single year, it would save domestic users about €5 million every year and, based on a carbon tax of €20 a tonne, it would save a further €1.2 million every year.

The difficulty at present is that the criteria laid out by Bord Gáis Éireann through the Commission for Energy Regulation, CER, do not take issues such as those I have articulated into account. I believe these issues are very important, in particular the impact this has on regional development and on the viability of businesses. It is about ensuring equality of treatment across the country and about the impact of emissions on those businesses and those regions. These issues are not taken into account. CER has to try to balance the issue of, on the one hand, the competitiveness of the gas market and, on the other, the maintenance and rollout of the grid. Sadly, issues in regard to regional development are not a concern of CER, which is a fundamental flaw. This should form part of the weighting and part of the consideration of any assessment. Even a small change would, literally overnight, make Carrick-on-Shannon viable for a gas connection and, of course, a number of other towns would benefit from that.

I urge the Minister of State to look at the legislation and draft an amendment that makes provision for the issues I raise. It is wrong this is happening to our part of the country, which is actually supplying the energy to the country as a whole. For example, we have what is happening off the coast of Mayo, which we all welcome, and we have a huge debate in my region at present on the issue of fracking. While I do not know what will happen in that regard, we want to have natural gas in our region now to sustain existing jobs. I have raised this issue on numerous occasions in the House with the Minister, Deputy Bruton, in regard to the MBNA jobs in Carrick-on-Shannon. Straight away, it would make that businesses viable in the long term if we could get a concession in this regard.

The final point I want to make is not just in regard to Bord Gáis Éireann but to all of the utility providers and is based on my own experience of electricity providers. The electricity providers, by law, have to take a meter reading twice a year, as I understand it. However, the electricity bill comes out every second month and, between meter readings, the bill is calculated on an estimate. I personally had a meter reading at the start of the winter and one after the winter, but it was an estimated bill over the winter period and I received an astronomical bill. While that is grand for me as I am a Member of Dáil Éireann, there are many families who are struggling to make ends meet. Something needs to be done to ensure they are not receiving massive, prohibitive bills that are putting them in arrears and forcing them into a situation where they cannot pay those bills.

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