Dr. Mark Cassidy:

I might ask Dr. O'Brien to reply to the question about fiscal rules as he has done some thinking about the EU framework.

I agree with the first part of what the Deputy said. I am not aware of the specific projects that he referred to. At a more economy-wide level, a key challenge is that we need to attract more investors to build flexible, cleaner gas-fired generators to supplement what we will have from wind-generated sources of electricity.

In recent years, we have been moving from a reliance on fossil fuels towards more renewable sources of energy. Already, around 40% of our electricity is generated from renewable sources. At the same time, we still have a higher degree of reliance on fossil fuels. As the last couple of years have suggested, the generation of wind-powered electricity can be volatile. There can be shocks to that supply, whether that is due to weather conditions or for other reasons. One risks, and we have seen that risk called out during last year, the situation where, in moving out of fossil fuels and closing oil or coal plants, one is not making up the difference and one does not have enough renewable sources of energy. We have had that experience called out over the last couple of years. I do not have an answer in terms of exact policies but we need to think about incentivising and attracting more investors to build flexible, clean gas-fired generators to go along with wind-generated energy. That would help to continue to reduce the reliance on fossil fuels and must happen. At the same, we must reinforce energy supply to ensure we are not vulnerable to fluctuations in wind-powered energy.

My colleague, Dr. O'Brien, will respond to the question on fiscal rules.