New chief executive appointed at ESB

ESB ENERGY International executive director Pat O’Doherty is to succeed Pádraig McManus as the State energy company’s chief executive.

The company confirmed yesterday that its board has appointed Mr O’Doherty, who was widely expected to take over from Mr McManus, to its top job.

A schedule issued by Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin in June puts the starting salary for an ESB chief executive at €318,000 a year.

Mr O’Doherty joined the ESB in 1981 and has worked throughout the business in senior management roles.

Before becoming executive director of ESB Energy International, he was executive director of networks, executive director of power generation and general manager of Synergen.

One of the first issues he is likely to face as chief executive is the proposed sale of a minority stake in the company.

The Government plans to do this as part of an overall sale of State-owned assets and businesses designed to raise €5 billion.

Some reports value the ESB at €6 billion and, as a result, speculated that a sale of one third of the business would raise €2 billion.

However, it is not clear how the market would value either the company or a minority stake. At the end of last year, its net assets stood at €12 billion.

A review and possible sale of State companies, particularly those in the energy industry, was one of the terms of a €85 billion bail out agreed with the EU-International Monetary Fund-European Central Bank troika by the Government last year.

The ESB group of unions has already made it clear that its members oppose such a move.

Along with this, the ESB is planing to cut around €140 million from its €700 million payroll over the next four to five years, to partly compensate for the loss of 800,000 customers to its competitors.

Mr McManus announced in March that he intended retiring this year.

He was paid €500,000 in 2010, but subsequently took a 15 per cent cut.

Yesterday, Fianna Fáil TD Éamon Ó Cuív called on the Government to explain why Mr O’Doherty’s salary breached the guidelines for State company bosses, which limit a chief executive’s pay to €250,000.

The €318,000 starting pay recommended by the schedule issued by Mr Howlin in June takes into account the scale of the ESB, which is the largest of the State-owned companies.

The group has yet to confirm that Mr O’Doherty will be paid this sum.

His starting date has yet to be fixed.