Confirmation of ESB take-over is bad news for Northern Ireland - Allister
21 December 2010
Commenting on confirmation that the Republic’s state owned electricity company has bought NIE, TUV Leader Jim Allister reiterated the view that it is a retrograde step damaging to the long-term interests of local consumers.
Statement by TUV Leader Jim Allister:-
"By selling off NIE, infrastructure and retail, to the Electricity Supply Board. NIE will join the Irish government’s portfolio of energy businesses and create a veritable monopoly of damaging Dublin-centred control. Choices on infrastructure investment will favour the Republic; when staff cuts come they are far more likely to be in County Antrim than in County Louth, especially with the company controlled by a cash-strapped Dublin government.
The political and economic consequences of this deal are immense. Future major decisions about Northern Ireland’s energy infrastructure and supply will now ultimately be approved by Dublin politicians, whose primary loyalty is to consumers and voters in the Republic.
It was the DETI Minister’s initial compliant response which let this proposition get off the ground. Though she later tried to back-peddle and save face, the damage was done. Sadly, under DUP control of DETI instead of greater emphasis on integrating the Northern Ireland energy market into that in Great Britain, we have seen the reverse.
This take-over will leave the government of the Republic of Ireland with a dominant position in almost every aspect of energy generation, supply, distribution and retail across the island. It makes a nonsense of all British and European policy regarding the unbundling of energy network and the promotion of competitive markets.
ESB has presided over wholly inefficient state owned power stations in the Republic, with huge political and union resistance to ESB modernising, with the suspicion that under the existing single market Northern Ireland consumers are already paying higher prices as a result. Such can only be exacerbated by this full take-over.
While this anti-competitive deal may serve the political agenda of some, in further aligning our economic destiny with that of the bankrupt Republic, it does not serve the interests of Northern Ireland’s economy or consumers."
