Criticism of ESB's management team by its trade unions should not be "manipulated", the firm's union group said yesterday.

A paper by the unions which rejected management's proposal for a part-flotation prompted its board to decide against that option this week. The group's secretary, Mr Paddy Reilly, said: "Any criticism of the management is made against management as a team." An ESB spokesman denied that senior executives had lost confidence in its chief executive, Mr Ken O'Hara.