THE ESB's voluntary severance scheme has so far led to 661 people leaving the company, the chief executive, Mr Joe Moran, said yesterday. The scheme was initiated in May as part of the Cost and Competitiveness Review (CCR).

Mr Moran told the Joint Committee on Commercial State-Sponsored Bodies that another 187 redundancies bad been approved for "exit" this year, and a further 177 for this or next year. The company plans to shed 2,000 jobs as part of the scheme by the year 2000.

The plan envisages gross savings of £85 million annually; it has a target of £31 million by the end of this year, and has to date achieved £23 million, he said.