Pa Daly (Kerry, Sinn Fein)

I move amendment No. 2:

In page 4, lines 32 to 36, to delete all words from and including “and” in line 32 down to and including line 36 and substitute the following:

“ “(c) up to such amount as will enable such employees or trustees to maintain the same percentage of capital stock they held of the total capital stock issued by the Board that they held immediately before the relevant stock was issued, and

(d) the approved scheme shall be subject to independent audit and the findings shall be published within 3 months of completion.

(8) Nothing in this Act shall be construed as permitting the sale or transfer of capital stock to any person other than:

(a) the Ministers specified in subsection (5);

(b) employees of the Board or trustees on their behalf under an approved scheme;

any future proposal to alter this arrangement shall require prior approval by resolution of both Houses of the Oireachtas.

(9) The Board may only use this payment to invest in projects that have been identified as part of a prioritisation framework which encompasses—

(a) congestion softeners in areas of high congestion,

(b) security encompassing hospitals, Garda stations, water safety and wastewater treatment,

(c) basic needs encompassing residential construction,

(d) exceptional cases of public interest,

and will exclude grid infrastructure upgrades or connections for data centres.

(10) The Board shall, within 6 months of the commencement of this Act and annually thereafter, lay before the Houses of the Oireachtas a report detailing:

(a) the purposes for which the payment was applied including a breakdown of project type;

(b) the purposes for which the pay will be applied in the next year including a breakdown of project type;

(c) the impact on consumer electricity prices;

the report shall be subject to review by the Oireachtas Committee on Climate, Energy and the Environment and the Oireachtas Committee of Public Accounts.

(11) The Board will ensure that any borrowing under this Act does not result in an increase in domestic electricity tariffs beyond inflationary adjustments, and shall publish an annual statement confirming compliance to be laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas.”.”.

See this speech in context