asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce to state the specific obligations of the Electricity Supply Board under the Electricity Supply Acts to which the Minister called the attention of the Electricity Supply Board, as stated by him in the Dáil on November 11th, and, further, if the Minister will lay on the Table of the House the correspondence in which he called the attention of the Electricity Supply Board to these obligations.
Ceisteanna.—Questions. Oral Answers. - Electricity Supply Board.
asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if he informed or in any way intimated to the Electricity Supply Board as his opinion that the Electricity Supply Board were obliged by the Electricity Supply Acts to provide not only a sinking fund but also a depreciation or renewal fund, and, if so, to what amount and on what legal or other advice the Minister acted in so defining the obligations of the Electricity Supply Board, and, further, to name the section of the Act imposing such obligation.
I will reply to questions 4 and 5 together. The effect of the Electricity Supply Act, 1927, in Sections 14, 15 and 21, is to require the board to repay advances in such manner as may be determined by the Minister for Finance and to make such provision as the board may think proper for reserve fund, extensions, renewals, depreciation, loans and other like purposes. I inquired as to the intentions of the board in respect of these matters, but have not otherwise defined its obligations. I have not yet decided that any correspondence between myself and the board should be laid on the Table.