Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein)
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Question 40: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources when he will publish the Cahill report. [15719/11]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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The Report by Frontier Economics was undertaken under a process overseen by Mr. Fergus Cahill as independent chair. The Report contains an assessment of costs, benefits and regulatory impact of the options for unbundling the electricity transmission assets set in the context of EU Third Package and the all island single electricity market.

The process involved input from the direct stakeholders and other stakeholders. The direct stakeholders were the management and the unions of ESB and EirGrid and the ESB Employee Share Ownership Trust. The direct stakeholders were provided with a copy of the draft conclusions of the Frontier Report and the opportunity to comment on those conclusions.

Both EirGrid and ESB have vital roles to play in delivering our national electricity infrastructure. The unbundling of the transmission assets involves the resolution of complex technical, financial and operational issues as well as the possible development of legislation. Both companies were given a copy of the final Report on a confidential basis and have submitted observations on it.

I will be bringing proposals to Government shortly with a recommendation on the next steps with regard to the electricity transmission assets. The Frontier Report contains significant and detailed commercially sensitive information. I expect to be in a position to publish the Report, taking account of the commercially sensitive information, which it contains, after conclusion of Government consideration of the transmission assets issue.