Mr. Fintan Slye:

The Deputy's final question was on the Celtic interconnector and its funding and whether there was a commitment by Europe to fund it. We have applied to the Connecting Europe Facility, which is a fund in Europe, and we have got grants for it. It has funded 50% of the development works to date under two funding rounds. Of the total money spent to date, we have applied to the Connecting Europe Facility and have received funding up to 50% which is typically the maximum it will give out. We hope when we make an application for the full project it will be looked upon favourably and will get similar treatment. We will only know that when we make the application which we expect to make in 2019.

The Deputy asked the share of the cost between Ireland and France. To date, we and RTE have operated on a 50-50 cost-sharing basis. After taking into account moneys received from the Connecting Europe Facility, the remaining costs have been split 50-50 between us and RTE. As part of the investigative work we are looking at now, we are working with the regulators to set out the benefits the project will deliver in monetary terms between Ireland and France. It will inform a decision by the regulators probably towards the end of next year on what the appropriate cost sharing between the two jurisdictions is. There is a formal European process determining how cost-sharing between two jurisdictions pursuing a project such as this is done. In the first instance, it is the two regulators. We and RTE make a submission to the regulators. We expect it will happen in the middle of next year and that they will come back with a decision towards the end of next year on the cost sharing.