TALKS ON breaking up the ESB are to get under way shortly following the Government appointment of former Irish National Petroleum Corporation (INPC) chief, Fergus Cahill, to lead a consultation on the plan.

Since 2007, the Government has been planning to transfer ownership of the national grid – the electricity distribution system – from the ESB to another State agency, Eirgrid, which currently manages it.

But a number of interested parties, including the ESB’s trade unions, opposed the move and the Government pledged to review the decision and hear their views.

Minister for Energy Eamon Ryan announced this week that he has appointed Mr Cahill to chair the consultation process.

Brendan Ogle, a senior official with Unite, one of the ESB’s trade unions, warned that workers intended resisting the move.

Mr Ogle said unions are looking forward to making it clear that they believe that it is in the best interests of the company and consumers that the ESB remains as it is. Mr Ogle added that the ESB is one of the few things in this country that works well, and said that it was not necessary for the Government to muddle in that and split the ownership of its power production and transmission businesses.

“We will resist any effort by anybody or by any Government to remove the transmission assets from the ESB’s ownership,” he said. “We will resist them as forcefully as we need.”

The company’s employee share-ownership trust, which owns 14 per cent of the ESB, has also come out against the proposal.

The split was proposed because the ESB’s competitors, including Airtricity, State company, Bord Gáis, Spanish group, Endesa, and Viridian-owned Energia, also use the grid to deliver power to their customers. Eirgrid’s management has said it favours the move.

It is understood that the consultation will begin within weeks.

The Minister said that consultation process will include an analysis of the costs and benefits of splitting the ESB.