Mr. Martin Finucane:

I will answer the first question on the delivery task force. The one thing about the long-term delivery of renewable energy is, especially as we look to develop the offshore sector, that it is a relatively new sector in Ireland. Many work streams are ongoing in different Departments, agencies and regulatory bodies.

The main job of the delivery task force will be to co-ordinate and pull together all of these aspects. A key part of that will be to ensure we are able to develop an enterprise and skill-development strategy alongside that and as the projects start to move from planning phases into construction phases and, in turn, into operation and management phases, we will have the skilled people ready to work with those projects and Irish companies available to take part in the construction and ongoing operation and management of the projects.

All of this is critical to ensure that projects have more certainty in terms of development. That is a key plank to enable them to bid in the auctions in a very competitive fashion. The support system that the project will come into is quite a competitive option scenario. They will bid against each other which will also be a good control on cost coming into the market for us.

We published an offshore grid policy last April which showed that would centralise the offshore grid in a single offshore transmission system operator. This operator is EirGrid which is working very closely with ESB networks to ensure that the development of an appropriate offshore grid strategy fits, in a timely and appropriate fashion, with the development and strengthening of the onshore grid.

Another of the Deputy's questions related to the grid capacity and the timing of works.

Shaping Our Electricity Future, which was published recently by EirGrid, looks at the development of the entire grid network up until 2030 so it takes on board not just the advent of onshore and offshore renewables and different technologies such as onshore wind, solar, biomass and offshore wind, it also looks at growth in demand and traditional gas and other generation units on the system. It does this because we need to take a holistic view of grid development. EirGrid and ESB Networks work very closely to ensure that new technologies can be taken on board; the grid is strengthened in the areas that require it, particularly around the greater Dublin area; and that ongoing replacement measures-----