Victor Boyhan: Flags ESB Bill risks for households and forestry

Thank you, Gerhilek. First, I want to welcome the Minister and to thank him for coming here before the House. Clearly, there's an element of urgency, as you've outlined, and clearly you've explained the waiver of the pre-legislative scrutiny. I just want to, I suppose, push into focus a few issues, and thanks for your detailed presentation here today. I suppose, in context, what are we talking about? We're talking about the Electricity Supply Amendment Bill, second stage, Bill 2025. It was published in October, the 30th of October. It went through all houses, it went through the Dáil, should I say, and was completed there on the 5th of November. It's now today before us. We, of course, have the option, of course, I'm always conscious people are listening in here, so I try and set the scene for the outer audience, rather the internal audience, is that we will have the opportunity, I think, by tomorrow, to subject to deadline tomorrow for amendments. I don't envisage myself putting down any amendments, but I do want to use this opportunity to flag a few concerns. with you, Minister, because I think that's where I'm best placed here, to get some sort of productive response from you. So, once an act of this bill will allow the government the 1.5 billion in ESB networks, and as my colleague previously said, any time we talk about the ESB in networks, you talk about the cost of energy. And we know, in terms of the VAT, all the expense, all the add-ons to everyone's bill. So, to the domestic, people who live in their homes, there's a cost factor. So, they're always keen to know what's going on, and why are the costs the highest in Europe for the production of electricity and energy. And then, of course, we need to talk about industry. We need to talk about business. But I'm also conscious behind all of that. We need to invest in infrastructure. We need to roll up. We need to catch up on infrastructure. And that's the challenge. And to be fair to the ESB, they have a great track record in it. So, this bill also provides for the increase in the statutory borrowing limits of use set out there for the ESB, from 12 billion to 17 billion. So, it's an enormous piece of legislation, and a lot of money involved. I took the time to look at the first quarter results for the ESB for 2025, and I want to share this with you. ESB profits. Underlying operation profits, 424 million, in line with the same period for 2024. Profits after tax, 313 million. Increased investment in critical infrastructure, which they have invested, to be fair to them, is 1.3 billion. Net debt increased slightly above last year at 6.6 billion. 4.4 million was invested in capital investment projects. So, I can go on and on. It's clear for anyone to see. It's up on their website. You can have a look at it. Minister, for someone who's on the agricultural panel, I have a particular interest in forestry. There are a lot of concerns about forestry. You will know the critical infrastructure corridors that run through our forestry right across this country, and the challenges that have happened there, particularly in relation to inappropriate planting in some cases, but not at all. The challenges around the public forestry versus private, and roughly it's about 48% to 52% either way. So, there's a great even divide of private sector versus state forestry, predominantly with Quilcher, the state forestry. So, there are challenges there. These are important infrastructural corridors. They have great potential for add-ons, be it other services to add on to those infrastructures. So, there's going to be a cost there. And there's been an ongoing issue and challenges with the IFA, who express a lot of concerns about the proposed legislation, particularly for the forestry corridors to be protected. But also, who's going to pay for the clearance of that to keep these lines free? So, there's an issue there around forestry. And I'd ask that there would be – I know forestry falls under Michael Healy-Way, Minister for State. But I think we need to engage with the IFA, but also the private landowners and the farmers. And they're not all farmers who own land that's in substantial forestry. They're investors. But there are stakeholders here. And I think we need to get to the bottom of that. And we need to see reasonably who's covering the cost. Because someone has suggested that the ESB say if there's costs involved, they'll be passed on to the customer. I don't want to hear that, quite frankly. Not when I see the profit margins that the ESB are making. And I wish to acknowledge their excellent work. So, I think that is important. There's also a concern about the proposed seeking to impose maintenance obligations on landowners. And we need to know more about that. Now, I'm not too sure if you're aware, I understand there may be pending legislation or regulation in relation to this. But the ESB currently are in part to fail and do clearance when it relates to critical infrastructure. So, what I would say is let's not get too technical about it. Let's see if we can meet the stakeholders here, the forestry representative bodies, and see can we get some sort of protocol or code in relation to it that might deal with the cost. But, you know, forestry owners are encountering huge costs. And losses due to the various storms. There are other challenges. The ash dieback is a major challenge. We see that, how it's impacting on electricity and electricity wires. So, I think that's an important point. And I'd ask, maybe you might talk to your colleague about it. It's interesting in terms of the briefing note. And I want to thank your department for providing the briefing note. And they talk, of course, about the progress of the bill. And hopefully this bill will go through. And we'll know it's slotted for next Tuesday afternoon. Not a lot of time, but we're going to have 15 minutes. But that will, of course, possibly change if amendments come in. And we'll know that tomorrow before lunch. But the next steps, you say, pending enactment of the legislation, the significant investment by government, the ESB, to part finance the delivery of the PR6 grid investment programme to continue to be overseen by officials from your department. You might just touch on that or how you plan to do that. And then the department will ensure the equity investment, appropriate legal documentation is there and put in place. So, I presume all that's in order. Going back to the explanatory memorandum of this bill, I draw your attention to page two. And you talk, of course, about the explanatory memorandum talks about the importance of jobs, the importance of rural communities, the importance of competitiveness in the industry and, of course, associated with all of that. And I fully understand that and I know where you're coming from. And how it will impact on SME, small to medium businesses, and, of course, the ever-demanding and ever-challenging and, rightly so, areas around climate change and just transition and all that goes with that. But what I was really particularly interested was the rural communities. And it says here, and I quote from the explanatory memorandum, rural communities will benefit significantly from the requirements and the investment and the upgrades of the electricity, et cetera. But then we talk about the establishment of the local community benefit funds, which will be used for sustainable environmental, economic, social and cultural well-being of local communities. I welcome that. I would perhaps ask, if you could, or arrange, if we'd have a briefing note on that, the scope of all of that, the process of how people in local communities could access this funding, because that's the sort of buy-in that you need. Sometimes when you have objections or concerns, I think they can be ameliorated to a certain extent when you explain the benefits. And we've got this benefit in kind. What are the benefits to our citizens? What are the benefits, particularly to our rural communities? Because this will impact on our, but it will impact on our urban communities as well. And I think everyone here would be very interested to see the benefits of this piece of legislation. And if you could, maybe just a briefing note next week or whatever, you could get time, just to flesh out the scope of all of that, the benefits of all of that, and how and when that will come on stream and the opportunities to access it. I want to thank you, Minister, and you have my support.