Ms Ellvena Graham:

There is a lot in that. I will take the last one first. I believe ESB management and unions have a constructive relationship. The Deputy will be aware that we have four worker-directors on our board. They make a good solid contribution to the board. I believe they have the good of the company at heart. The ESB has come on a long journey and once one talks about taking costs out of an organisation, naturally there is a tension there. However, I think it has been managed as well as it could have been. The relationship seems to be as open as it could be and I believe both parties are working constructively. I hope that continues throughout my tenure on the board because as we look to the future it is incredibly important that we continue to work well with the unions.

The Deputy mentioned electric vehicles. The ESB has invested significantly and substantially in installing a charging network throughout the country. There are a number of fast charging points and almost 1,000 standard charging points throughout Ireland, as well as, obviously, the opportunity to charge a car at home. Recent press reports referred to a monthly charge of €16.99 for people who wanted to use charging points on the motorway, etc. Up to now it has been free. We need to run it as a commercial operation and the management is considering a range of options. Some customers may never what to do that and just continue to charge overnight at home. They may want to have an option of using one of the public chargers on an emergency basis and paying for that. There are a range of options and I do not believe we have seen the full story yet. The ESB needs to run it as a commercial operation. Those charges will not apply until April 2016, but a range of tariffs will come out between now and then.

The Deputy asked about EU-wide electricity. We no longer operate as an island, but as a group of islands with Great Britain. We have interconnectors between North and South and between east and west, across into Britain. Do I envisage having interconnectors into France? Yes, I am sure that will happen. Having EU-wide electricity will take time. The important thing for us is to have security of supply. That is what the Government is looking for and what ESB is working towards. That is why we have a diverse mix in our portfolio, incorporating wind, gas, water and whatever else. It is important for us to look at the newer technologies as well, which is why we are looking at things such as wave technology and solar. We certainly need to look at energy in an EU context, but we also need to look at it from an Irish perspective and what we are doing to meet our targets and to have a secure supply here in Ireland.

The Deputy spoke about microgeneration and the cost of connections. If I understand his question, he was asking about smaller operators trying to get on to the grid, very often in remote areas. There is an additional cost for a person at the end of a line. Ireland is rather peculiar in that we have double the network that one might have in other places with fewer houses on it. At the end of every road or lane there is a house and therefore the network has to cover all of that. We try to make it as competitive and cost-effective as we can. I am sure not everybody is happy with the price. That is about the height of it.