Sir, - In your report of Wednesday, June 4th, entitled "ESB on £120m peat station shortlist" there is a statement in the second column that: "Bord na Mona, which will supply the peat to the station, was not allowed to enter the competition or join any of the competing consortiums."
This is not the case and we are anxious to take this opportunity of clarifying Bord na Mona's position in relation to ownership of the Europeat Station.
Bord na Mona conceived and promoted this project and always saw its expenditure in developing the project as being ultimately convertible into some form of ownership participation. There were considerable delays in getting the competition for the project launched and in order to avoid possible further complications/delays Bord na Mona decided and advised the Department of Transport, Energy and Communications that it would not participate in a bidding consortium. However, it has always been Bord na Mona's position that the project's and Bord na Mona's own interests would be best served by Bord na Mona having an appropriate shareholding. This can best be achieved by Bord na Mona negotiating a shareholding with the winning consortium to reflect Bord na Mona's costs in promoting and developing the project. - Yours, etc.,
Managing director,
Bord na Mona,
Newbridge,
Co Kildare.