Victor Boyhan (Independent)

I welcome the Minister and thank him for coming before the House. Clearly, there is an element of urgency, as he has outlined. He explained why pre-legislative scrutiny was waived. I want to put a few issues into focus. I thank the Minister for his detailed presentation.

The Bill was published on 30 October. It went through the Dáil and completed Second Stage on 5 November. It is now before us. I am always conscious of people who are listening in and I try to set the scene for an external rather than internal audience. We will have the opportunity, subject to a deadline tomorrow, to submit amendments. I do not envisage putting down any amendments, but I want to use this opportunity to flag a few concerns with the Minister. I am best placed here to get some sort of productive response from him.

Once enacted, the Bill will allow the Government to issue €1.5 billion in additional capital stock in ESB Networks. As my colleague said, any time we talk about ESB Networks we talk about the cost of energy. We know about the VAT audit and the add-ons to everyone's bill. There is a cost factor for domestic customers. They are always keen to know what is going on. People want to know why the cost of the production of energy and electricity is the highest in Europe. We of course need to talk about industry and business.

Behind all of that, we need to invest in infrastructure. We need to catch up, which is a challenge. To be fair to the ESB, it has a great track record in that regard. The Bill also provides for an increase in the statutory borrowing limit for the ESB, as the Minister set out, from €12 billion to €17 billion. It is an enormous Bill and a lot of money is involved.

I took the time to look at the first quarter results for the ESB for 2025 and I want to share them with the House. Underlying operating profits were €424 million, in line with the same period for 2024. Profits after tax were €313 million. Increased investment in critical infrastructure, which to be fair it has invested in, was €1.3 billion. Net debt increased slightly above last year at €6.6 billion. A significant sum was investment in capital investment projects. I could go on. The figures are clear for anyone to see. They are on the website and people can look at them.

As someone who is on the agricultural panel, I have a particular interest in forestry. There are a lot of concerns about it. The Minister will know the critical infrastructure corridors that run through our forestry across the country and the challenges that has created, in particular in some cases, but not all, inappropriate planting. There are challenges around public and private forestry, which is about a 48% to 52% split. Coillte deals with State forestry. There are challenges.

These are important infrastructural corridors and they have great potential for add-ons for other services. There will be a cost. There are ongoing issues with the IFA, which expressed a lot of concerns about the proposed legislation, in particular the protection of forestry corridors. Who will pay for clearance to keep lines free? Forestry falls under the remit of the Minister of State, Deputy Healy-Rae, but we need to engage with the IFA, private landowners and farmers. It is not just farmers who own land under substantial forestry; there are also investors.

There are stakeholders. We need to get to the bottom of that. We need to determine who will cover the cost. Somebody suggested that the ESB will pass on the costs involved to the customer. I do not want to hear that when I see the profit margins of the ESB. I wish to acknowledge its excellent work. That is important.

There is also concern about the imposition of maintenance obligations on landowners, and we need to know more about that. I am not sure whether the Minister is aware that there may be pending legislation or regulation in regard to this. The ESB is currently empowered to fell and clear when it relates to critical infrastructure. Let us not get too technical about this. Let us see whether we can meet the stakeholders, including forestry representative bodies, and determine whether we can develop some sort of protocol or code to deal with cost. Forestry owners encounter huge costs and losses due to various storms. There are other challenges.

Ash dieback is a major challenge. It has an impact on electricity wires. That is an important point. I ask the Minister to speak to his colleague about it.

I thank the Department for providing a briefing note. It refers to the progress of the Bill, and it is to be hoped it will pass. A debate is scheduled for next Tuesday, which will be an hour and 15 minutes but may change if amendments are tabled, and we will know that before lunchtime tomorrow. The note states that, pending enactment of the Bill, significant investment by the Government in the ESB to part-finance the delivery of the PR6 grid investment programme will continue to be overseen by officials from the Minister's Department. The Minister might touch on how he plans to do that. The note also states that the Department will ensure the equity investment and appropriate legal documentation are put in place. I presume all of that is in order.

Page 2 of the explanatory memorandum for the Bill speaks of the importance of jobs, rural communities and competitiveness in industry, and the costs associated with all of that. I fully understand that and know where the Bill is coming from. It also refers to how the Bill will impact on SMEs and the ever-demanding and challenging areas around climate change, the just transition and all that goes with that.

I was particularly interested in the reference to rural communities. The explanatory memorandum states that rural communities will benefit significantly from the requirements for investment and the upgrade to electricity, etc. It goes on to refer to the establishment of the local community benefit funds, which will be used for the sustainable, environmental, economic, social and cultural well-being of local committees. I welcome that. Could the Minister arrange for a briefing note on the scope of all of that and on how people in local communities can access the funding?That is the sort of buy-in that we need. Sometimes when there are objections or concerns they can be ameliorated to a certain extent when we explain the benefits, and it is benefit in kind. What are the benefits to our citizens? What are the benefits, particularly to our rural communities? This will impact on them, but it will impact on our urban communities as well. Everyone here would be very interested to see the benefits of this legislation. If he could, the Minister might provide a briefing note next week or whenever he gets time just to flesh out the scope and the benefits of all that, how and when it will come on stream and the opportunities to access it. I thank the Minister. He has my support.