Alice-Mary Higgins (Independent) | Oireachtas source

There are concerns regarding the actions. There is potential for tension, with the Minister, Deputy Ryan, calling for a shift in policy and Gas Networks Ireland apparently being able to ignore that call. Some unknown Minister, however, will be able to send a non-public letter.

When I brought forward my Climate Action and Biodiversity (Mandates of Certain Organisations) Bill 2023, which proposes changing the mandate of Coillte and Bord na Móna, the discussion in the Chamber gave the impression that the shareholder letter was going to be used to deliver all kinds of positive things for the environment. However, when we actually looked at the letter, we saw that it does not do so. Rather, it works against it. It works for the short term, not the long term. We have a concern, therefore, that we may have a Minister making a call in public but, in effect, being ignored by Gas Networks Ireland, and then some other Minister writing something else. It is quite interesting. I thought the cash piece was shocking, frankly. It is beyond anything that we have. The Minister of State knows, because I have engaged constructively with him, that the thinking on what is value for money and what delivers for the public has moved far beyond that which delivers the shortest-term cash. That is not necessarily the best way of looking for the best value for money for the State. It is still there, however, in the recent letter sent to these commercial bodies. A tension is emerging.

As regards the suggestion that there is commercially sensitive information, there is publicly sensitive information. It is a matter of interest to the public. There is an abiding public interest in the content of communications between Ministers and commercial State bodies. That is a matter of incredible public sensitivity. It is as though the State is a firm such as Ernst and Young, but that is not the case. The State is a shareholder because it is recognised that this is something of immense public interest. The State has retained a shareholding in these bodies in order that a public representative, namely, a Minister, can transfer some kind of public duty and public good and carry that out. Otherwise, we could just slot in any old shareholder. Why is the State a shareholder? It is because the State is meant to balance its duties, functions, responsibilities and representations of the public in how it does all its work, including its work as shareholder.

Leaving that aside, if there is an unwillingness to have transparency and accountability in how the State uses its power as shareholder, let that never be used as an argument as to why we should not have legislative change. I expect progress to be made on legislation that seeks to make clear the mandates and functions of State bodies. If we will not have an accountability structure built around the shareholding, then shareholding cannot be suggested as an alternative to proper legislative regulation.I will be coming back and looking for shifts in the mandates. I just do not to hear a speech from some other Department saying that as shareholders they will do their best and put their tuppence in but they cannot tell anyone what they say. That is not good enough for the public. The responsibility now moves to the Minister of State's Department in terms of the question of the mandates and functions of Gas Networks Ireland, GNI. This is in the context, as Senator Boylan has outlined, of an extraordinarily problematic ten-year-vision from GNI. The Department now needs to decide how it is going to engage, especially since the Department is prohibited by this legislation from being a shareholder. Since we collectively will not have an input on who is the shareholder I urge that the mandate of GNI in respect of environment and biodiversity be revisited and strengthened.