Lowry disputes claim of 10 per cent pay rise in ESB

THE Minister for Energy, Mr Lowry, disagreed with the Fianna Fail spokesman Mr Seamus Brennan over claims that ESB staff would get a 10 per cent pay rise next year.

The matter arose at Question Time when Mr Brennan queried the accuracy of the Minister's estimate that the cost of the agreed redundancy programme and other measures in the ESB would be confined to £60 million a year.

The Minister said he was confident the savings would be achieved and the Government had agreed to make a generous contribution on that basis. The external auditors of the company would verify the savings.

Mr Brennan asked the Minister to comment on claims that staff remaining in the company would get a 7 per cent increase plus a PCW increase of 3 per cent.

Mr Lowry said the terms on offer were a 2 per cent pay rise payable directly from a reduction in pension fund contributions £2,000 per worker payable over three years an annual lump sum of £275 payable from profits and share participation of 5 per cent with £325 worth of shares being underwritten by the board.

Mr Brennan claimed that the Secretary of the Department had said the pay element was 7 per cent.

Following further exchanges the Ceann Comhairle, Mr Sean Treacy, said Mr Brennan would have to take up the matter at some other time.

Mr Lowry, replying to further questions, said Ireland hoped to confine to 25 per cent the proportion of the electricity business that would be opened up to competition under the proposed EU directive on liberalisation of the market.

He believed the ESB would be prepared for competition when the changes now being made there were complete. The more liberalised market would exert a downward pressure on prices, which would be good for consumers.

He said he was impressing on the EU the need to avoid liberalisation leading to "cherry picking" of big customers, leaving smaller, less profitable ones to be catered for by the state sector. The debate was continuing within the EU, with some countries, including Germany, demanding complete liberalisation. It was impossible at this stage to say what the outcome would be.