Mr. Dermot Nolan:

I will ask Mr. Blaney to answer that question.

We are hugely dependent on gas supplies and will remain very dependent on them in 2020. We do not know what the situation will be beyond that date. The chief economist of the International Energy Agency who has more knowledge of the issue will be in Dublin next week and will talk about it then. The demand for gas has risen significantly in the past few years. One of the reasons for this - it is driving up gas prices - is that nuclear power plants are being closed down in Japan and Germany. Therefore, the demand for gas will probably rise as a result. I am not a scientist, but it is my understanding that there are still significant gas deposits in the world, but extraction costs may rise. I do not know how this will impact on the industry.

It would be great if there was another energy or heating source. For example, in most of Scandinavia gas is not used to generate heat, rather electric storage heaters are used. Currently, we are very dependent on gas supplies. A comment I would make which might relate to fracking which is a tricky issue is that currently gas is very cheap in North America. It is half the price, but there are no facilities to export supplies. The reason it is only half the price is that fracking practices are used. Perhaps they should not, but I am not expressing an opinion on that issue. I wish I knew how gas prices will evolve here in the next five or ten years, but we will certainly be dependent on such supplies.

Deputy Michelle Mulherin asked about oil usage, the figure for which is less than 1%. Therefore, oil has almost no role to play in electricity generation. Energy is generated mainly using gas and, to a lesser extent, coal.

With regard to the State and competition, we do not have a view on whether something is public or privately owned. We might have personal views, but the commission does not have a view. Perhaps I should not say this, but I have the personal view which would probably be shared by my colleagues that the monopoly network should remain in State ownership. There will only ever be one set of wires, one group running the electricity network. There will only ever be one entity running the gas network. These will be monopolists. My personal view is that it is better to have a publicly owned monopolist than a privately owned monopolist.