Mr. Peter Harte:

On the question of how power will be transmitted to the United Kingdom, the recently commissioned EirGrid east-west interconnector has a rating of 500 MW. We believe the scale of the resource and the combined projects in the midlands will probably account for around 3,000 MW; effectively, that is six times bigger than that for the existing cable, which could not accommodate that capacity. We have proposed as part of the Greenwire project - other projects have proposed similar connections - to build a new dedicated HVDC connection directly to the United Kingdom. That is the same technology as for the east-west interconnector but at much higher ratings. It will not look that different in terms of what goes in the ground. It is still a cable on a public road, but it is the technology which can move that quantity of power with very low losses and at reasonable cost to the United Kingdom. It has been proved the world over.

On the question of requiring backup power, it is indisputable that there may well have been a day when Ireland had a demand for power of 5,000 MW and the wind was not blowing, but for every day one can point to in that example, I can point to another when the wind was blowing and provided over 50% of our power supply. What matters is how much power one ends up with at the end of the year. Last year nearly 20% of all of Ireland's electricity was generated by wind energy, an impressive figure which will increase to 40% by 2020. That is what will give us a degree of energy independence compared to the use of gas. As I said, we can do this without requiring any new fossil fuel plant because we already have a generation fleet in Ireland, to which Mr. Swords referred, which is new, modern, efficient and large enough to cover all fluctuations in terms of wind energy and which is already doing this on a daily basis. It is still capable of doing so in the future; therefore, there is no requirement for further backup for the domestic market.

On the export project, the question of backup is one for the United Kingdom, but I believe is in the same position as we are and can easily accommodate the levels of wind energy it is planning to use.