Communities in the midlands, depending on ESB re-investment in power stations, were being threatened by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke, refusing to sanction a 3 per cent electricity price increase, a trade union representing ESB workers stated yesterday.

Mr Joe Bowers, regional organiser of the Manufacturing, Science, Finance (MSF) union, which has 1,000 ESB representatives, said that the Minister had welshed on the Cost and Competitive Review (CCR) agreement and was undermining the ESB's ability to raise adequate capital for a 10-year re-investment programme. "The ESB will require massive investment if it is going to successfully withstand all the rigours of deregulation and competitiveness that is in store for it," he said.