Ms Ellvena Graham:

The Deputy covered a great deal but I will start with the last question on apprenticeships. The ESB has a long history of taking in apprentices and developing apprenticeships. Pat O'Doherty, the chief executive, is chair of the apprenticeship association. Throughout the recession we had reduced the number slightly. We were taking approximately 60 apprentices, but that is up again now. We intend to do that as we have seen the fruits of our investment in apprenticeships. Often we use our training facilities in Portlaoise. Apprentices spend a number of weeks there in addition to the training provided by the Government. We are entirely committed to the apprenticeships. Pat O'Doherty's personal commitment demonstrates that. It is one of the success stories of the ESB. When others had stopped taking on apprenticeships we continued to take them throughout the leaner years and we will take on more of them into the future. I am fully committed to what we are doing in that area.

The Deputy referred to the storms. Last night was probably the stormiest night we have had, when storm Barney hit us. This morning there are still approximately 15,000 homes without electricity and a number of them will be in the Deputy's constituency. The area south of a line from Galway to Dublin was particularly badly hit. ESB staff unstintingly go out in very difficult weather to keep the electricity supply going and to restore it as quickly as possible. They are hoping to have it restored to all of those homes by this evening. I am very proud of the work they do. It is certainly a 24/7 organisation in that regard. People must work shifts. During storm Darwin we took over 200,000 calls from customers about electricity outages, so we work hard. We have invested in the network. Some of it can be fixed remotely when there are issues. In other cases people must go out. If a tree falls down on a line they must go out to do that work. Unless the wind picks up again today we hope to have the problem addressed by this evening.

On flooding, I recently went to Cork to see the Lee dams and what had happened in Cork, because I am not particularly familiar with the area. We have appealed the judgment so I do not wish to say a great deal about it. I believe we operate the Lee dams, and indeed all of our dams, to the highest international best practice. That is not to say that we do not continue to improve or to examine what we are doing, but I believe our teams on the night managed that as well as they could in terms of what confronted them. The dams were over-spilling and had to be safely managed. We conduct a great deal of analysis. We have had international expertise helping us with analysis of that and we continue to improve how we manage the dams. At the same time, however, there is a large amount of water when there are high floods and the dams are only a certain height and size. I cannot say there will not be another flood in any area in Ireland because of the dams.

The Deputy asked about the north-south interconnector. I cannot comment on any assertion that there will be a cut in energy prices but the interconnector is certainly necessary, particularly for the businesses in Northern Ireland. They were pleased when they heard it is now in planning. I am not sure which route it will take between the North and the South, as that has yet to be conclusively ironed out. We need an interconnector and we need to be able to use the electricity north and south. I am not sure that the ESB will be the biggest beneficiary in Northern Ireland. We only went into the retail supply market in Northern Ireland last month, so we have to build the business of supplying consumers there. We have been supplying corporate customers for ten years or more but we only started to supply retail customers in Northern Ireland in October last.