Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

I will kick off and invite colleagues to come in. The Chairman is right in that it is a very important topic. The context in which we are discussing it has changed dramatically in recent weeks. It is not at all premature to have this discussion. We need to be planning for the future right now. To put our emphasis on gas security in context, even though we have more than 5,000 MW of renewable electricity generation capacity on the system, this morning we were getting as little as 19 MW from that capacity because it happens to be a still and not very windy day. We were reliant primarily on gas generation and coal generation as well as interconnection.

If we want to continue to provide security on days like this, we will need to continue to have dispatchable generation capacity to ensure that the lights stay on. We would like to get rid of that coal generation capacity and the natural replacement, in addition to renewables, is also having dispatchable gas generation backup available on days like this. Sometimes, during the winter it can be weeks like this, where we literally have very little wind power - or in the future solar - on the system.

There is a really important priority associated with ensuring security of gas supply and bolstering security of electricity supply. At the same time, there is an equally, if not more, important driver around decarbonising that gas supply over time. Every piece of investment that we make in our energy infrastructure should be future proofed in line with our decarbonisation aspirations. The focus up to now has been very much on electricity but more and more, the focus is turning to the question of the combination of gas security and sustainability in the longer term.

As we have stated previously, we see a role for green hydrogen, not just in supporting security of supply on this island but also as a potential opportunity for Ireland to be an exporter of renewable energy. We think there is a huge opportunity associated with our vast offshore wind potential alongside the use of green hydrogen. In all of the investment we make we should be considering whether the energy generated could, in the future, be converted to or used for, green hydrogen, and to be able do so as quickly as possible as the market, regulatory framework and supply infrastructure develops around that fuel source.

The Chairman mentioned storage and there is an opportunity around gas storage facilities. If we were looking at onshore gas storage facilities linked with potential LNG imports, they would be designed for future storage of green hydrogen. In designing at that level, they would also be usable for LNG imports in the interim until we have access to green hydrogen. In other words, if we design a storage facility to accommodate green hydrogen it will also accommodate LNG in the interim. The reason we have emphasised the potential role of LNG in the future is that while we do have access to infrastructure via the twinned pipelines to the UK, it does not give security of supply at the level that is required under EU law or under any strategic view of security for the island of Ireland. That security standard is based around ensuring that if one critical piece of infrastructure is not available for any reason, including a physical interruption or a breakdown, for example, the country should be capable of ensuring security of supply on that day. If a key piece of the infrastructure associated with importing gas from the UK was not available, Ireland does not currently have the ability to ensure security of supply for the country over time. We have options around backup at generation sites but as we said to the committee in July, there are strong reasons to consider LNG import infrastructure in line with or as part of the Government's review of security of supply for Ireland. We simply do not meet the supply standard that is required by the EU at the moment.

The importance of this has been further underlined in recent times. We have all come to realise the importance of secure supplies of energy and of our dependence on gas as a transition fuel for decarbonisation as well as for ensuring security of supply for the island of Ireland. As the Chairman has said, this is all about future proofing the infrastructure and ensuring that we are ready for green hydrogen, perhaps in advance of any timelines that we would have previously thought.

We welcome the EU's approach to accelerating the decarbonisation of gas and the focus on green hydrogen. We are not there yet and we need to be secure in the interim. I invite colleagues to comment further on the issue is they wish.