Mr. Eamonn Confrey:

I will go back sequentially on some of the questions. Deputy Dooley asked about fines. I can set out the position on the outline costs on the renewable energy side. The expectation is that we will be several percentage points short of the 16% binding target to be met for renewables by 2020. We will probably be in the range of between 2% and 3% short by 2020. Work undertaken by the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland some years ago indicated that the cost per percentage point of not meeting a renewable target would be in the range of €65 million to €130 million for each percentage point.

The 2009 renewable directive provides that member states who may not meet their 2020 targets can purchase what are called statistical transfers to allow them to achieve compliance. In 2017 Luxembourg was one of the first member states to sign a co-operation agreement with Lithuania and Estonia to provide for statistical transfers. Our estimation of what that deal meant is that the costs for Ireland could be below the lower end of the range that SEAI indicated some years ago. I suppose it is a market and it will certainly depend on market conditions if and when those purchases come to be made. We have already begun some informal discussions with several member states that we believe may be in surplus and that Ireland may end up having to purchase from. From an Exchequer point of view, any potential shortfall would be spread over several years. The cumulative costs would not be known until 2021 because that is when the final accounts for 2020 are put together. Certainly, we are keeping Government apprised of the potential exposure on that side.

In the meantime, our focus is very much around bringing forward the different schemes that have been mentioned. For example, the support scheme for renewable heat will hopefully open later this year or early next year. That will certainly target facilities in the commercial and non-domestic sector, in other words, the commercial and industrial sectors. One of the Deputies asked what we were doing on that side. I believe that will have a significant impact, especially given the renewable heat challenge that we face. It is challenging for reasons of our settlement patterns and so on. They make it especially challenging on the heat side.

I already mentioned renewable electricity and the new renewable electricity support scheme. The expectation is that the Government would approve the scheme in the coming months. That would certainly open for auctions in 2019. Jim Gannon made a point earlier on this. It will represent a change from the fixed tariffs that we have had to this point. It will be very much arranged on a competitive basis. I hope we will be reaping the benefit and reward of those lower technology costs that I mentioned earlier, especially around technologies on solar, offshore wind and onshore wind, which remains one of the cheaper forms of technology that we have successfully connected to our system in large numbers.

Senator McDowell asked about data centres. He mentioned a particular development in Athenry. I will outline what the Government has been doing in the meantime. All the relevant Department and agencies, including IDA Ireland and EirGrid, have been meeting since last autumn to bring together a strategic response. What does that mean? There have been amendments under way to the planning Acts to try to designate data centres as strategic infrastructure.