Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like a little clarification on what Deputy Stanley said. There is no tariff applied for the trade in electricity between the two jurisdictions and what will now effectively be a third country when Brexit takes place. That is just a straight, linear exercise driven by the market, capacity and requirements. The same applies to gas regardless of its origins. Its access to the country is tariff free so there are no concerns in that regard. The Deputy's only concern on the potential of this legislation is based on concerns that there may be some capacity for actors or players to distort the market in some way. I do not get this if there is no such tariff related requirement. In any event, we are giving more powers to the regulator to forearm it in that event.

In light of the fact that Britain is exiting the European Union, is the Government still of a mind to try to further advance the Celtic interconnector so that we are connected to the European grid with the advantages that would pertain there? My understanding was that our interconnectedness, particularly on the electricity grid, was more to the benefit of our friends north of the Border in the Six Counties than any great benefit that would accrue to the South. That was important and of course it is right that we would assist there. In terms of our long-term vulnerability from a requirement to get access to the wider European grid, I would have thought that we need to advance the Celtic interconnector, particularly in light of our climate change requirements. Clearly if it works to the extent that more of our transport fleet and more of our heating requirement is electrified, with a greater requirement around the storage of data, we will be using significantly more electricity so we need to be more resilient there and there is obviously a wider debate there about renewables, both onshore and offshore such as wind etc. Notwithstanding that, I would have thought that the Celtic interconnector was a major requirement that now comes into sharper focus as a result of Brexit.