Brian Ó Domhnaill (Fianna Fail)

The Minister of State spoke about the assistance available to a number of companies. In my experience, this assistance is not available to the small and medium-sized business sector because many of the companies I have in mind are not large enough to avail of some of the incentives available for the use of green technologies. Although the all-Ireland electricity market has resulted in reduced energy prices, the ESB recently increased the price of electricity by 5% across the board. The other players in the market offer a service similar to that provided by the ESB, albeit at a slightly lower rate. As a State company, the ESB should discuss with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the possibility of introducing measures to assist the SME sector. While the other energy providers could then follow suit, any such development would need to be initiated by the Department. In 2003-04 one of the State agencies, Údarás na Gaeltachta, made a submission to the Government seeking to have a proposal submitted to the European Commission. I ask the Minister of State to convey my request to the Minister.