Northern Ireland Electricity and Marathon have expressed their intention to establish power plants in the Republic, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, confirmed. She said that "other independent power producers have expressed a similar interest".
Ms O'Rourke was responding to Mr Austin Currie (FG, Dublin West) who said that because of the Belfast Agreement "this may be the first occasion for the fullest possible co-operation on energy". He suggested that "there was an opportunity for an agreed energy policy for the whole island and possibly a single regulatory agency".
Ms O'Rourke said she could see quite clearly the potential of the North-South bodies in general and in particular the potential of power generation and supply.
The whole matter was subject to legislation that would come from the EU directive on the internal market on electricity. "But the ideas you've posed are exciting and are full of potential," she told Mr Currie.
Saying the matter could be "revisited" she added that at present the regulatory authority for the electricity sector was the ESB. "Under the Electricity Supply Acts, they are charged with the responsibility for issuing permits to other undertakings who wish to generate and supply electricity. This will continue to be the case until such time as the provisions of the EU electricity directive are implemented by new legislation passed by the Oireachtas."