Barry Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This legislation is the Government's response to the excessive costs and burdens being placed on households by electricity bills. It might be a welcome reprieve for the moment at a cost of €215 million, but it does little to guarantee that we will not be here again throwing hundreds of millions of euro more of taxpayers' money at meeting bills that are far too excessive and well in excess, I might add, of genuine contributing factors like international gas prices.

As I have stated in the Dáil and media commentary, I have deep concerns about the ESB. In the first half of 2021 while businesses throughout the country struggled and hundreds of thousands of people fought to survive on the pandemic unemployment payment, the ESB announced an increase of €114 million in operating profits. Before exceptional items, its operating profit was €363 million. Equinor, one of the world’s largest players in the energy market, has pulled out of a joint arrangement with the ESB, seemingly unable to make things work in Ireland. I have challenged the ESB on several fronts - questioning its role in energy costs, how public service obligations benefit it and how it is regulated - and sought an investigation into manipulation of the energy market. Most of all, I cannot understand how we have arrived at a situation where there is such a grave lack of energy security in a country that is brimming with energy sources. I have decided to take these ESB and regulatory issues to the European Union for a state aid investigation and to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission for an investigation of the ESB's price hikes in the wholesale energy market, which impact thereafter on householders.

In recent years, our State has proven unable to oversee the ESB. We do not seem to have been able to supervise or regulate it properly. We have also failed in developing new forms of energy supply. We know that renewable generation accounts for 40% of the energy grid, but the majority of those renewables are land-based wind projects, and when the wind stops blowing we can see its impact on the wholesale energy market and, consequently, household energy bills.

I believe that the European Commission will now ensure that the ESB is properly overseen and regulated. Since EU regulation will ensure a functioning company and market for the consumer, it will not be in the State's interests to continue to own the ESB. It has served a useful purpose over the decades and has been an asset for the State, but the time has come to have a debate on its ownership. The State has often been a pointless owner of assets and a terrible shareholder. It has also been unable to supervise the companies it owns, either lacking the technical people to see what its businesses are doing or the powers to curb them. Ownership is no longer the key determinant of how dominant companies operate. Rather, proper regulation is, and that is what the EU will insist upon. We should sell the company off and use the money to power our move into offshore wind and other industries for a green future. Of course, staff and other interested parties should be allowed to participate in the sale's proceeds, but the bulk must be used to invest in the future and ensure that we have a functioning energy market.

The availability of a rich supply of sustainable energy will be the great commodity of the future. Ireland has potential in abundance and needs to maximise its geography to its advantage in the world. It is then that we will be sure that legislation such as this will not be necessary again.

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