Dr. Paul McGowan:

Deputy O'Sullivan has raised very interesting points in his questions around LNG and other offshore licences. It is important to bear in mind that as we work towards a net-zero carbon future we have identified that Ireland will use predominantly gas and renewables. Those renewables will be made up of a variety of technologies, storage and so on, and there will also be rules for the demand side. There will be an increasing reliance on gas. When we have our security of supply hat on we must consider how to ensure security of supply over that period. One important element to consider is diversity of supply. At the moment we have gas from indigenous production through Corrib. The Kinsale field has now ceased production. As the Corrib field declines in the future, and without any further indigenous gas production, essentially our diversity of gas supply comes down to one source of supply. Over the next few decades as we are looking at transitioning to net-zero carbon, we must consider what sort of diversity of supply we require in order to ensure security of supply. It is worth noting that the Department is in the process of undertaking a security of supply review. The commission will input into that review. We will be identifying the needs to consider diversity of supply in order to ensure that overall we have a secure energy supply as we transition to a zero-carbon future.