Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 10 Mar 1965

Vol. 214 No. 11

Co-Operation with Northern Ireland in Field of Electricity. - Statement by Minister.

Minister for Transport and Power (Mr. Childers)

I am glad to inform the House that, following discussion with Mr. Faulkner, the Northern Ireland Minister of Commerce, I have reached agreement with him for a joint investigation into the technical and economic possibilities of co-operation in the field of electricity.

We have agreed to set up a Joint Committee under the Chairmanship of Sir Josiah Eccles, an internationally recognised authority. The Committee will consist of two technical representatives nominated by Mr. Faulkner and two nominated by me. I suppose, subject to the agreement of the Electricity Supply Board, to nominate Mr. A.J. Harkin, Chief Engineer Designate, and Mr. R. McDowell, Head of Systems Operation Department of the ESB.

The terms of reference of the Committee will be:

To investigate the scope for agreement in cross-Border co-operation between the electricity supply systems; to advise on the economic and technical problems involved and to estimate broadly the savings in costs which might be achieved.

It is hoped that the whole investigation can be completed within 12 months.

Mr. Dillon

Any co-operation of this kind is to be welcomed and the proposal of which the Minister has informed us is a very reasonable one. I am glad that the Minister saw fit to make this announcement in Dáil Éireann rather than issue it on the steps of Stormont as some of his junior colleagues have been doing. There is doubt as to whether steps of this kind should be made the subject of political pyrotechnics every time something is done for the purpose of suggesting that everything that is being done has stemmed from the recent tea parties that took place in Stormont.

The plain fact is that everybody who knows anything about these affairs knows that the Foyle Fisheries were acquired by the two Governments many years ago and are today operated by the two Governments. As this House will remember, at the time of the acquisition of the Great Northern Railway, in order to keep it running when the Stormont Government proposed to close it down, there was close co-operation between the two Governments and, as the Minister for Agriculture well knows, scarcely a day passes that co-operation of one kind or another has not proceeded for the past 20 years between our Department of Agriculture and Stormont. We welcome all developments along these lines but we are convinced if we are always to attempt to make Party capital out of these exchanges either here or in Northern Ireland that would be a development which those who desire the better relations which everybody in this country seeks to promote and which I hope every element in Northern Ireland welcomes also, should emphatically deplore.

Mr. Corish

The same thought occurred to me as to Deputy Dillon, and for that reason I welcome the method by which the Minister for Transport and Power has made this announcement. I hope it will be continued by him and copied by some of his colleagues because too frequently such announcements are made in other places, very obscure places. As we welcomed the meeting between the Taoiseach and Captain O'Neill, we welcome this new measure of co-operation which I trust will prove to be for our mutual benefit.