Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Ms Graham. I apologise for being late, but I saw most of the presentation on the monitor. Much of my focus at the moment is on supply and also diversity of supply. In County Meath there is a proposal for an industrial wind farm, but we are also on the route of the North-South interconnector. There is a lot of upset in that regard. I accept it is not necessarily Ms Graham’s area. I have done much research in the past two and a half years in particular for the oral hearing on the proposed wind farm. There is disappointingly little focus on solar energy or any other type of energy for the 2020 targets. All of the focus seems to be on wind. What is Ms Graham’s view on the future of solar energy, bio-energy or other alternatives in terms of the energy supply for the ESB?

Deputy Fitzmaurice said the ESB needs to find a way to store energy that has been wasted. Is research under way at the moment on how to store energy, for example, from wind turbines when the wind blows at night and energy is not needed?

There is a great debate at the moment on renewable energy. Proposals have been put forward for the conversion of Moneypoint, which uses coal, to sustainable biomass. It has been suggested that such a change would immediately allow us to achieve our 2020 targets, reduce emissions by 85% and solve many problems in terms of wind turbines and pylons. What is Ms Graham’s view on the matter? I wish her well in her new position.