Vol. 433 No. 3
59 Mr. Noonan (Limerick East) asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications the negotiations, if any, which have taken place between officials of his Department and companies in the private sector for the private generation of electricity and its sale into the national grid; and if he will give details of Government policy on this matter.
Officials of my Department have met various interests who were seeking information on the future development of the Irish electricity market and who indicated that they could generate electricity at very attractive prices. These meetings were only for the purpose of exchanging information. Options for providing additional generation capacity are under review and will be decided by Government in the light of future generation requirements.
As I indicated recently in response to another question from the Deputy one of the objectives of the proposed restructuring of the ESB is to promote the development of combined heat and power projects and renewable energy projects. There has been a long tradition for this sort of project being developed independently of ESB and my aim is to put in place a regulatory framework which will facilitate access to the netork on fair and equitable terms. ESB will retain responsibility for operating the national grid.
