Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to hear them. It is certainly better than what we heard yesterday, which I felt was an entirely negative attack on one man over housing policy. Today at least we have some proposals to discuss. Deputy Boyd Barrett stated that nationalisation is an absolute must. That is the core of what this motion is about. We have a lot of involvement from the public sector in the energy market in Ireland. Provision of electricity at certain stages is a natural monopoly. That is why we have EirGrid, which is owned by the State, a form of EirGrid that owns the Northern Ireland grid, and the ESB Group, which almost entirely belongs to the State. The money ESB makes can only go to two places. It can either be reinvested in the electricity system we have or it can be returned as a dividend to the State and taxpayer. It belongs to the State. We have ESB Networks, Electric Ireland, Bord na Móna, which I believe built the first wind farm in Ireland and is now trying to develop wind farms offshore including in the bay off the coast of my constituency. Coillte is also heavily involved in the provision of wind farms. Many, of course, belong to Electric Ireland.

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