O'Rourke, ESB challenged on `lost `investment' claim

The Minister For Public Enterprise, Mrs O'Rourke, and the ESB were challenged yesterday over an ESB claim that £500 million worth of investment was lost to the Cork area because of a delay caused by objections to a pylon project across Cork Harbour.

ESB transmissions asset manager Mr Bernard O'Reilly told RTE's Prime Time programme that £500 million worth of investment was lost to the area because objectors had delayed the introduction of a new 220kv transmission system necessary to guarantee supply to industry in east Cork.

Yesterday, however, the Cork East Fine Gael TD, Mr David Stanton, and the chairman of Cork County Council, Mr John Mulvihill, challenged Mrs O'Rourke and the ESB to name the companies which went elsewhere because of the pylon controversy.

Mr Stanton said it was the responsibility of the Minister and the Department of Public Enterprise to ensure the ESB delivered an adequate supply of electricity to its customers, in accordance with its statutory mandate.

Mr Mulvihill said the ESB should not be allowed make such wild claims and said he was challenging Mr O'Reilly on the matter.

"If he has the names of the companies that refused to come into Cork Harbour because the ESB couldn't guarantee continuity of electricity, I ask him to publish those names."

Mr Stanton said that the ESB was blaming the residents of the Lower Harbour area for the situation. He called on Mrs O'Rourke to direct the ESB to begin work immediately on the underwater cable option before any more long-term damage was done to the region's ability to attract inward investment.

An ESB spokesman said the ESB was precluded for reasons of confidentiality from identifying the names or the number of companies which pulled out of investing in the Cork area. But he said the companies had approached the ESB directly and that the total investment was more than £500 million.

An IDA Ireland spokesman would not comment on what companies might have been involved. He said IDA Ireland never commented until companies had announced they were setting up.