MINISTER FOR Energy Eamon Ryan has rejected an accusation of incompetence in the job from Fine Gael frontbench spokesman Simon Coveney because of the Minister’s response to a 3.5 per cent ESB wage increase.
Commenting on Mr Ryan’s reaction to the wage rise, Mr Coveney said: “Either the Minister should have known about it or else he did know about it and did nothing. The Minister’s competence must be called into question on this matter.”
A spokesman for the Minister said: “We don’t accept Mr Coveney’s analysis or accusations. The Minister is not responsible for implementing the national wage agreement, nor is he responsible for micro-managing the ESB.”
An ESB spokeswoman told The Irish Timesyesterday: "The three-month pay pause that applied to ESB employees under the national wage agreement expired on November 1st, 2008.
“On December 17th the board of ESB approved payment of the 3.5 per cent increase that was due under the agreement and staff were duly told. The first contacts with the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources regarding the payment took place in mid- January 2009, following media reports of the board’s decision.”
The payment was made at the end of January.
In a statement, Mr Coveney said: “Anybody who knows anything about energy policy in Ireland knows that the Minister’s department is in constant contact with the ESB. When the ESB board makes major decisions – such as granting a pay hike – the Minister’s department knows or should know about it.”
Mr Coveney added: “The ESB decided in mid-December that it was granting this pay hike. It is just not credible for the Minister responsible to claim that the first he heard of this was when he read it in the newspaper a month later . . . It is not acceptable for thousands of workers in the ESB to claim a pay hike while everybody accepts that energy prices must come down.”
There has been some confusion about the matter in recent days. The Irish Timeswas told by authoritative sources on Thursday that the department had been informed of the pay rises immediately after the board meeting.