Correspondence from Treasury Holdings, promoters of the National Conference Centre, referring to the ESB as a "clubby band of corporate thugs" revealed an unacceptable face of capitalism, the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, said yesterday during an Oireachtas committee hearing on the Electricity Deregulation Bill.

The letters from Treasury Holdings, which had been lobbying for an amendment that would allow it to build a combined heat and power (CHP) plant for the conference centre, were read to the Joint Committee on Public Enterprise and Transport by the Labour spokesman on public enterprise, Mr Emmet Stagg.

Ms O'Rourke said she was flabbergasted by the description of people who had given long service to the State.

But ESB staff who are members of the MSF union stated to the committee that classifying CHP as a renewable or alternative form of energy would result in 45 per cent of the market being deregulated, rather than the 28 per cent envisaged in the Bill. CHP operators would be able to cherry-pick the corporate market at competitive prices under the proposed amendment.

The directors of Treasury Holdings, Mr Richard Barrett and Mr John Ronan, lobbied members of the committee for changes to the Bill, claiming that the ESB was unable to supply the centre's electricity needs in time for £26 million in EU funding to be received. In an earlier letter from Mr Barrett, dated February 10th, and addressed to the Labour Party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, he stated that progressive thinking was being counterbalanced by "the antediluvian approach of State monopolies".

"A more clubby band of corporate thugs could not be imagined - they'd leave Guinness, CRH or Smurfits in the shade," the letter states.

A letter from Mr Larry Donald, the secretary of the ESB, to Mr Stagg on June 8th denies the Treasury Holdings claims about the semi-state organisation's lack of ability to power the centre as "palpably false."

"I have had discussions with the relevant ESB engineers and can confirm to you that ESB can, and could at all times, power the National Conference Centre, in advance of the proposed opening date," Mr Donald states.

Mr Barrett, in subsequent correspondence with Mr Stagg, requested that the amendment on CHP be retracted on the basis that CHP operators may incur a public service obligation (PSO) charge, a levy imposed on electricity operators to pay for the social cost of operating uneconomical power stations.

"If there is anything I can do at any time to assist you (as these things should be a two-way process), please do not think twice about contacting either me or John Ronan," he states.

Ms O'Rourke said she would table her own amendment on CHPs for consideration at this morning's Oireachtas committee hearing.