Bord na Móna chief does not favour privatisation

THE MANAGING director of State energy company Bord na Móna Gabriel Darcy, said yesterday that he did not favour privatisation for the business.

Economist Colm McCarthy is leading a review of all State companies and assets that could lead to the sale of businesses such as Bord na Móna.

Speaking after he addressed the Chartered Accountants, Leinster Society lunch in Dublin yesterday, Mr Darcy said he favoured keeping the group in State ownership.

He pointed out that the company – whose operations span electricity generation, fuel supply, waste management, horticulture, and managing the peat bogs – is self-funding and profitable. However, he stressed that his main priority was to maintain the group’s competitiveness and continue with the development of its businesses.

During his speech, he said that Bord na Móna expects revenues for its current financial year to reach between €390 million and €400 million and earnings before interest, tax and write-offs to be about €70 million.

Mr Darcy told the gathering that Ireland’s considerable water resources represented a development opportunity for the country.

“We have one of the best water regimes of any country in Europe or the western world,” he said.

He added that access to sustainable, clean water features on the top five of most multinationals’ shopping lists when they are looking at a potential destination for investment.

“What we do not have is a system to capture, store, treat and distribute it,” he said. “But that is eminently fixable.”

Bord na Móna is working on a plan to take around 2 per cent of the water from the river Shannon and pipe it to a resolver at the company’s site at Garryhinch, west of Portarlington, from where it will be distributed to at least nine counties in the midlands and east.

The company has been working on this project along with engineering and utility groups KPS and Veolia Water. It is likely to cost about €500 million.

When Bord na Móna first revealed details of the plan last year, Mr Darcy said it would ultimately be paid for through the introduction of water charges.