Mr. Rodney Doyle:

Another milestone project in the evolution of the overall electricity system on the island of Ireland has been the single electricity market, which has been operating for some 12 years now. In the committee's 2017 report, it prudently called for the maintenance of the single electricity market and the completion of the integrated single electricity market, ISEM, project. I am happy to report that we completed that project and the market has now been significantly advanced. It has been operating successfully under its new arrangements for the past 12 months. While much political discussion has focused on various sectoral aspects of the North-South and east-west relationships in the Brexit negotiations, there has remained a strong and consistent view that the single electricity market should be retained. Operating the electricity market on an all-island basis has been a major success and is a tangible benefit of the peace process. Now that we have transitioned to the integrated single electricity market, we are linked into the European market which resulted in the delivery of even greater efficiencies across the electricity system. The ISEM has brought real efficiencies to how we manage the generation and supply of electricity across the whole island. It helps minimise the price of electricity and ensures we retain cost competitiveness with other economies.