I welcome the Minister to the House. I apologise for the mix up last week on the Adjournment. I was taken by surprise that the Seanad adjourned at 2 p.m. rather than 4 p.m. as scheduled.
It is envisaged that an additional number of approximately 3,000 people are to be laid off from the ESB, a move which will alter the image of the company. In 1980, approximately 13,500 people were employed by the ESB in this country. This figure has now been reduced to 9,500 and it is envisaged that the workforce will be cut by a further 3,000 under the new cost saving plan which will save the ESB approximately £18 million over a three year period, money which the company will then be able to give back to the consumer. It is also envisaged that the workforce will be cut by a further 3,000, which means that it will have been reduced from 13,500 in 1980 to approximately 3,000.
I take a poor view of this and the unions and Government will have to seriously consider the way in which the ESB is developing. The firm which undertook the report on the ESB, McKinsey and Associates, took a group of union officials and ESB management to the USA where they visited various power plants. However, they were only taken through the front doors of these plants and were shown how a few people could run a station very efficiently. They were not taken to the back of the plant and shown the "yellow pack" workers — those brought in on contract and so on. This was the same firm which, in its report some years ago on the restructuring of CIE and Iarnród Éireann, as it is now called, advised that the company could be made viable by cutting off the rural part of the country and putting direct lines from Dublin to Limerick, Cork and so on. Proposals of a similar kind appear to be made in the report on the ESB. It is a matter of concern, not only with regard to the reduction of the workforce within the ESB structure, but even more so in respect of the safety factor within the company.
The fact that the ESB wishes to reduce the workforce in the power stations raises the issue of safety. There is a power station in the constituency which I represent. It was commissioned in 1974-75, was built over a number of years and employs 260 to 270 people. It has created a lot of employment in the area. The workforce in the station has now been reduced to 174 because all those who retired or resigned, especially over the past four years, were not replaced.
The company is considering building a new peat power station in the midlands and advises that this will create at least 300 jobs. It is not known whether they will be full-time or part-time jobs or whether they will be at the construction or operational end of the plant. The ESB must clarify these points. At the same time it is advising that these jobs are required in the midlands, where there is huge unemployment with no prospects of any work, it advises that it will attempt to deprive a small community of 130 or 140 jobs in a rural area of north County Kerry. This power station is keeping five, six or seven parishes alive in an area where no factories or industries have been established in the past 30 years. At the same time the ESB proposes to replace this workforce by bringing in private contractors, or "yellow packers", comprising people who are not qualified, unskilled and who have not the proper training. Effectively, it is proposed that these people will be brought into a high tech industry like the ESB to run a power station.
In view of this I am concerned about the safety factor of the proposal. Some years ago an explosion blew out part of the Tarbert power station. Similar incidents could happen again. In five to ten years' time, when the skilled work force, with years of training, has been laid off, I do not want to be told by the then management that these power stations are unsafe and a danger to the public. We must ensure that the industries in the country are safe and that the power stations are properly manned and supervised. Given this, I fail to understand how, if over the last ten to 30 years 260 to 270 people were required to run a power station, we can now be told by McKinsey and Associates, or whoever has compiled this programme, that the same power station can be run by a greatly reduced workforce.
It is proposed to reduce the workforce of the Tarbert power station to 96. Part of the power station, comprising units one and two, has been closed down since 1981. It was recommissioned approximately four or five years ago, with £23 million spent on it by the ESB. To date, however, part of the power station has not been brought on stream. despite the company's assertion that there has been an increase in demand of 6 per cent per annum, that new power stations are required in the midlands and so on.
If it is suggested that the workforce of the ESB can be reduced to approximately 3,000, why are 800 people running the administration office in Fitzwilliam Square? At the same time as this situation exists, the company is proposing to eliminate badly needed jobs in high tech power stations because it says that it can run the stations more efficiently by bringing in "yellow pack" workers and contractors. In addition, it is contemplating bringing in contractors to replace the canteen workers, the cleaners, the security forces and the van drivers. The people making these proposals want to rip the heart and soul out of the ESB and bring in untrained people to overhaul power stations. While this is going on the workforce within the ESB has had to bail out these contractors. I have proof of a situation where contractors were brought into a special station in the country and where the work force had to bail out a contractor because he did not have the knowledge with regarding to doing the overhauls.
What is the Government's position on this issue and what is the extent of the Government's involvement in the ESB? What are its long-term plans? Does it intend to close down the ESB stations altogether and start importing electricity rather than exporting it over the Border, as envisaged by the ESB? What is the future for the ESB? I am extremely concerned, not alone about the 3,000 people whom it is proposed to take out of the ESB workforce, but about the safety factor in all the stations. I am particularly concerned about my own constituency, where 160 jobs will be lost. That will be a devastating blow to the entire economy of the area, not alone in the village of Tarbert, but in Moyvane, Astee, Ballybunion and all the way into Listowel. No factory or industry has been set up in that area for the last 30 years. If the Government was to announce 150 new jobs for the area in the morning, through IDA grants or whatever, a song and dance would be made about it and we would hear about it for the next five or six months. At the same time, they are contemplating taking 140 or 150 jobs out of a community which will have devastating effects on our schools, churches——
