ESB staff told Ministers' inaction leaves shares in limbo

EFFORTS BY ESB workers to value and distribute part of their stake in the State-owned energy company are in limbo because Government Ministers have not met their representatives for over a year.

Staff own 5 per cent of the company, which is held for them by a trust. The trust last year began a process of valuing the shares for distribution, known as appropriation, last year. However, as the Government wants to split the company’s generating and transmission businesses, the trust decided to postpone this process.

To do this, it needed the permission of Minister for Finance Brian Lenihan and Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan. In a statement, the trust told the company’s annual general meeting this week it sought meetings with both Ministers over a year ago, but neither has responded. This meant the appropriation could neither be postponed nor go ahead.

A group chaired by Fergus Cahill has been in talks with various parties interested in the Government’s plans to split the ESB, including its workers. The trust said this week it had “serious reservations” about this process. According to the trust’s statement, Mr Cahill’s review finished eight weeks ago.

The Government wants to transfer the national grid, which transmits electricity from power plants to the network which brings it to the customer, to the ownership of another State company, Eirgrid, which already manages it.

Both the company’s unions and the staff’s share ownership trust oppose the plan, which has been Government policy since 2007.

The trust told the meeting this week other assets have already been transferred to Eirgrid from the ESB without any compensation for either the company or the trust, which is one of its shareholders. “We have sought an assurance from the Minister that as well as requiring the review to recommend how to protect our interests, he himself would act to do so,” the trust’s statement said. “The response, despite repeated requests has been a deafening silence.”

The share ownership trust also expressed concern that the ESB’s share of the market has been shrinking, and argued competition in the Irish electricity market has resulted in higher prices.