Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Naughton and the secretariat for arranging this meeting and the representatives of the CRU for attending. As Ms MacEvilly said, the joint committee has a very broad remit. We are here to defend a €90 million investment, which has already gone into the ground and was invested on the basis of certification awarded in 2012. While Ms Trant stressed that the company involved was a different legal entity in 2018, the project remains the same. It is the project that was authorised in 2012 by the body that the CRU replaced. That authorisation was the key to the €90 million that has gone into the ground. This figure had not been plucked from thin air. Construction has taken place, 130 people are working on site and the project offers major potential. The CRU's decision has caused frustration and this meeting has been arranged to try to get an understanding of it. What changed in the project, as opposed to the legal entity, between 2012 and 2019 that resulted in a 100% certificate being issued in 2012 and an 18% certificate being issued in 2019?

Ms Trant said that no planned plant has become operational. I have a few questions to put to the CRU in this regard. Is it a matter of general concern that considerable investment is made in drawing up applications, which I presume require significant CRU staff time to process, yet none of the proposed plants has become operational. How does this compare internationally?

Was the CRU's ruling in respect of the data centre based on policy or judgment? How does it stack up internationally? Those are my questions for the time being but I will contribute again.