Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)
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146. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the number of employee share ownership plans in operation in the commercial semi-State sector under the remit of his Department; his views on whether they offer good value to the State; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10045/14]

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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There are three Commercial Semi State companies under the aegis of my Department which have employee share ownership plans (ESOPs) in operation, namely Bord na Mona (BnaM) , Bord Gáis Éireann (BGE) and the ESB.

The (ESOPs) in all three companies were established in return for specific, substantial, verifiable changes to be delivered by employees which give value to the company and the shareholder, in line with Government policy on (ESOPs) in commercial State Companies.

In relation to Bord na Mona, the ESOP continues to hold 5% of the Company’s shares on behalf of the 2,102 participants.

The Bord Gáis Éireann ESOP was developed in 2005 in the context of a wider programme to achieve significant organisation efficiencies and savings of €32.7 million in BGÉ over the five year period from 2005 – 2009. 3.27% of the capital stock of Bord Gáis was transferred to the ESOP. BGÉ is currently undergoing a major transformation programme. The fundamental changes to the BGÉ business, corporate structure and statutory remit will result in what will be a fundamentally different business to the original BGÉ group in which the ESOP was established. In order to facilitate the necessary restructuring of BGE required by these ongoing changes, it has been decided to wind up the BGÉ ESOP.

The ESB ESOP was established in 2001 to acquire and hold a 5% stake in ESB on behalf of over 10,000 employees and former employees of ESB. It was a feature of the Cost and Competitiveness Review agreed between the Government and ESB management and ESB Group of Unions in 1996.