ESB staff have been accused of seeking unlawful payments of up to €35,000 from a development firm whose backers include Ireland’s sovereign investment fund. The building firm has admitted paying thousands of euro to ESB workers to expedite connections to the national grid.

​Details of the payments — authorised by senior executives in the development firm and disguised as expenses or payments to contractors — were revealed in the High Court last week. The ESB is applying for an order to compel the development firm to detail all payments it made to ESB engineers.