Did you hear the one about the Irishman who sued himself? Sounds far fetched, but don't discount Irish ingenuity. That's what a frequent object of concern to this web page, the ESB, the state controlled Electricity Supply Board, may do.

The story, as related in a recent issue of The Irish Independent, with a headline reading "Bizarre ESB Case", goes something like this.

The ESB and EirGrid are two sides of the same face.

Under rules governing the deregulation of electricity services, the ESB had to surrender its transmission network which was transferred to EirGrid.

However, the Electricity Regulator (a third party) decided to allocate certain functions relating to safety and design of the electricity transmission grid to the ESB and not to EirGrid.

EirGrid, which itself is substantially funded by the ESB, was not happy with the decision, and got leave from the High Court on Friday to challenge the decision, in effect allowing two parts of the former ESB monopoly to appear on opposing sides.

What happened to the man who sued himself? He lost, and was ordered to pay costs, which meant that he to had pay his own legal costs and himself's costs as well. Two sets of lawyers went home very happy.

The same may happen in the EirGrid/ESB case if it is allowed to proceed.