Tony Killeen
Ceist:206 Mr. Killeen asked the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications the responsibility, if any, he and his Department have for the ESB. [3838/95]
Written Answers - Departmental Responsibility for ESB.
The Board was constituted by the Electricity (Supply) Act 1927 and was given wide powers and the commercial freedom to promote, inter alia, the generation, transmission, distribution and sales of electricity throughout the State. Its powers, duties and functions are in the main embodied in the Electricity (Supply) Acts 1927 to 1988.
ESB behaves in accordance with commercial principles in its day-to-day operations.My primary responsibility and that of my Department is to ensure that ESB, as the monopoly supplier of electricity in Ireland, delivers an adequate supply of electricity to its customers at the cheapest possible price in accordance with its current statutory mandate. My Department does not have any statutory powers to intervene in the day to day operations of the ESB and normal Government monitoring is generally confined to the following: (i) the total amount of capital expenditure is subject to the approval of the Minister. Proposals for new capital projects are also subject to the approval of the Minister.However, the implementation by the board of approved projects is carried out on a commercial basis; (ii) borrowings by the ESB are subject to the consent of both the Minister for Transport, Energy and Communications and the Minister for Finance; (iii) the board must report annually to the Minister in the format required by him and must provide him with any data he requests; (iv) a five year corporate plan, rolled over annually, is required to be submitted to the Minister; (v) annual estimates of capital expenditure are required to be supplied to the Minister; (vi) price adjustments are approved by the Government; (vii) chairman and board members are appointed by the Government. There are 12 members on the board, four of which are elected by the workforce and appointed by the Minister.