Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will respond first to Senator O'Reilly. If there is an agreed withdrawal, the continuance of the North-South single market is recognised in the withdrawal agreement. There is a strong commitment among all concerned to ensure it continues. In the event of a crash-out, certain trades on the single electricity market will no longer occur. However, the expectation is that the remaining trades - the security and supply trades and intra-day trades - will continue to support normal business on the system and that it will not lead to any short-term problems. The CRU is taking this power which we hope to enact to give it additional capacity to alter licences to ensure the market is protected.

That is the position. A longer-term new agreement would have to be worked out along similar lines to those with Finland, Norway and Switzerland, which have third-party recognised grid interconnection and market operations. There are precedents for integration of markets that are recognised by the European Union. That would have to be worked out. Obviously, we have been engaged in discussions at EU level in that regard.

On the point raised by Senator O'Reilly and Deputy Eamon Ryan regarding the North-South interconnector, the Supreme Court this morning cleared the project in the South to proceed. However, as Deputy Eamon Ryan stated, last week the Northern Irish authorities requested that planning permission for the project be quashed in light of the fact that it was wrongly given the go-ahead in the absence of a ministerial presence. New legislation has been introduced in Northern Ireland and it will allow the secretary general to provide the necessary approvals. It appears that the Northern Ireland Department for Infrastructure is considering restarting the planning process, although I am unaware of the details of that.