Statement by TUV leader Jim Allister:-
“With the Dublin PM boasting that the soaring profits of ESB (€390m in 6 months) will be used to ease financial pressure on the Republic’s consumers during the energy crisis, it is high time we had total transparency on just how much of those profits are coming from Northern Ireland through ESB’s ownership of NIE Networks (NIEN). [Extract from NIEN Annual Report: “NIE Networks is part of the Electricity Supply Board (ESB), the vertically integrated energy group based in the Republic of Ireland (RoI).”]
“The operating profits of NIEN in 2021 was £123.6m. As is clear from NIEN’s Annual Report the net profits was paid as a dividend of £39.4m to ESB in 2021 – likely to be much higher this year.
“I am continuing to press Gordon Lyons as the local Economy minister on these issues of Dublin control of our energy sector, with Eirgrid controlling SONI and ESB owning NIEN.
“With NI consumers facing a winter of rising energy prices it is quite intolerable and an indication of how control of this sector was abdicated to Dublin that consumers across the border will, according to Micheal Martin, be those to benefit from profits made in NI. Meanwhile our local consumers will see no such benefits from profits made here.”