John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for including me. I was going to ask a further question about the UCC students - I ask that the Tánaiste follow up on the matter - but Deputy Cowen's point made a strong impression on me because I was not aware of the issue. His point is that the ESB, a commercial semi-State company, won a bid to be one of the electricity suppliers but failed to supply the electricity. Was the ESB ever in a position to supply it? It seems it gamed the system, kept another supplier out and was prepared to pay the penalty of €4 million to enable itself to do that. Obviously, consumers, businesses and industry are at the wrong end of this. This is a serious issue. When will the Government revert to the Dáil on it?

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