The ESB unions insist that if the government does not immediately back away from the plans, announced in last week's Energy White Paper, it will take "whatever action is necessary".

The possibility of industrial action was discussed at last week's meeting of the six ESB unions and they insist that their concerns must be addressed before the general election in eight weeks.

"If the government think we will sit on our hands [until after the election], they must take us for awful fools. Unless the government alters this policy, it will definitely be an election issue, " said Brendan Ogle, regional organiser with the ATGWU, which last week published its own briefing paper on the electricity market.

Ogle said the White Paper for the first time "brings forward the break up of ESB", adding that, given the experience in Eircom, "that's something we cannot live with".

However, Natural Resources minister Noel Dempsey this weekend signalled there would be no rowing back on the proposals and said he had the support of his cabinet colleagues.

"The White Paper is good for consumers, good for industry and good for the economy.

It's a government decision and it's the right thing to do, " he told the Sunday Tribune.

The unions are demanding a meeting next week with the government. They were shocked at the White Paper's plan to completely remove the electricity transmission network from ESB ownership, which they say breaches a clear commitment from Dempsey last October that the ESB would not be broken up. The unions say the move would make ESB a "basket case" and would increase, not reduce, prices.

One senior union source said the proposal had to be changed before election day "or else". Jerry Shanahan of the Amicus union warned that ESB workers were "frustrated, resentful and angry that having endured significant cuts in staff over the last 10 years, this now appears not to be enough". He promised a response "sooner rather than later" , warning that the unions would be foolish to ignore the opportunity presented by the general election. A senior source at the TEEU union bluntly warned: "Whatever we have to do, we'll do."

Ogle said industrial action was the "ultimate sanction available to workers" and that it would be na�ve to believe, given the scale of the proposed change, that "that's not the option foremost in people's mind at this time".

However, government sources said that the government was committed to addressing the issue of rising energy costs and insisted the plan did not represent a breakup of the ESB.