Dáil Éireann debate -
Tuesday, 14 Dec 1999

Vol. 512 No. 6

Written Answers. - Commission for Electricity Regulation.

Martin Brady

Question:

102 Mr. M. Brady asked the Minister for Public Enterprise her views on whether the Commission for Electricity Regulation should be staffed in a balanced fashion by personnel drawn from both the public and private sections to provide the best possible range of advice and experience in relation to regulatory issues and to prevent the possibility of the regulator being captured by the industry through over reliance on staff drawn from the private sector; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26720/99]

Martin Brady

Question:

103 Mr. M. Brady asked the Minister for Public Enterprise the number, nature and type of staff appointed to the Commission for Electricity Regulation since its establishment; the basis on which these appointments were made; the procedures involved in selecting the successful candidates; whether any staff have been transferred from the Civil Service to the commission; the steps, if any, being taken, in advance of the outcome of the promised consultative process involving all regulators under the aegis of her Department, to avoid a reoccurrence of the personnel and industrial relation problems which have occurred in the Office of the Director of Telecommunications Regulation; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26721/99]

Minister for Public Enterprise (Mrs. O'Rourke)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 102 and 103 together.

Under the provisions of section 10 of the schedule to the Electricity Regulation Act 1999, the recruitment and appointment of staff to the commission for electricity regulation are matters in which I have no direct function. They are for the commission itself to arrange.

There are three members of my Department currently on secondment to the electricity commission.