One of the ESB's main unions has warned against any attempt by "significant and influential groups" to break up the State company, writes Lorna Siggins

The ESB Officers' Association (ESBOA) has also claimed that the Commissioner for Energy Regulation is under pressure to set rules which may adversely affect the company. Mr Tony Dunne, ESBOA general secretary, made the claim at the union's annual conference in Galway yesterday.

"Our understanding is that the ESB has made every effort to co-operate with the regulator's requirements for business separation. Some of what has been looked for was both unreasonable and excessively costly," Mr Dunne said.

"It is the view of the ESBOA that the demands of those who seek to dismantle ESB structures under the guise of 'competition' are not driven by logic, but by hostility."

The union believed that "significant and influential groups", including the Irish Business and Employers' Confederation (IBEC), the Competition Authority and elements within Fianna Fáil and the Progressive Democrats, were behind such a move.

The vertically integrated utility (VIU) model offered the best option for a State of five million, including Northern Ireland, Mr Dunne told delegates. Customers in Britain, where VIUs were dismantled, had not been offered a better service as a result.

"The much heralded 'competition' has so far had the effect of producing a price rise of 8 per cent which had little to do with ESB demands," Mr Dunne said. "This particular increase was given to ensure that market conditions were sufficient to attract private sector investment." A severe downturn in the ESB Pension Fund was also discussed at the conference. The deficit in the fund was 800 million at the end of last year, and the situation was one for "concern" but not alarm, Mr Dunne said.

Some 5,400 pensioners benefit from the fund which has almost 8,000 contributors.