THE Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, called on staff involved in the unofficial ESB dispute to return to work and to "pursue their grievances through the appropriate procedures".

Ms O'Rourke made the appeal "in the interest of electricity customers throughout the country". The industrial action was "unofficial and is in breach of the agreed disputes procedures which apply in the ESB as well as the Partnership 2000 agreement", she told the Dail.

There were sharp exchanges between the Minister and Mr Emmet Stagg, Labour's Transport and Energy spokesman, over the dispute, and they called each other names during the debate.

Mr Stagg said the Minister should "stop acting like a bull in a china shop, doing more harm than good. Will she also stop substituting old blather for real action in this regard?"

Ms O'Rourke: "The only blather I hear is from the deputy. He is great at it." She added that he was the "arch-blatherer of the Dail".

Outlining the details of the dispute during a special notice question, Ms O'Rourke said the unofficial notices placed on the ESB stations by members of the TEEU and AEEU related to disciplinary cases involving two staff at Tarbert power station in Co Kerry, which was being pursued through the agreed industrial relations procedures in ESB.

The Fine Gael spokesman, Mr Ivan Yates, called on the Minister to give a guarantee that power supplies would not be cut off. "I cannot tell the public there will be no power cuts because talks are taking place at present," Ms O'Rourke replied. "I hope there will be no power cuts. I intend to stay working on this matter all day and night."

She had spoken to the chairman of the board of ESB and twice to the chairman of the group of unions. She had been kept up to date throughout the day on what transpired at the six-hour meeting on Wednesday, which resumed yesterday. She said that Congress had got involved and that was a hopeful sign.

Mr Yates asked if resolving the Moneypoint problem on Monday had created another problem which had gone "from being a bush fire to an inferno". The Minister said the problem at Moneypoint was a fresh difficulty while the Tarbert one was nearly at an end."

Mr John Gormley (Green, Dublin South East) asked what contingency plans were in place if the power cuts became a reality. The Minister said she had asked the chairman of the ESB to let her have a contingency plan when the talks with Congress concluded.

Labour's Enterprise, Trade and Employment spokesman, Mr Pat Rabbitte, pressed the Minister on this point and suggested that there was no plan.

Ms O'Rourke said, however, she could not compile a contingency plan. The ESB management "are the people with the power. It is their job to submit a contingency plan to me and I expect that is what they will do."