Ms Tara Connolly:

On the question of the cost, everything has a cost, but there should be genuine clarity about what the cost is in return for what one is getting. We have the concept of the value of gas security and electricity and the value of lost load. There are quantifiable values one can place on these things and then have an understanding of how much one is willing to pay. That value can be different depending on the different customer. That may also be instructive as to who should be paying for it. If industrial customers are valuing it higher, perhaps they should be paying more.

It would be interesting to see some modelling as to how often we would expect something to happen with the UK interconnectors or how often we expect such an LNG terminal to be used. Most LNG terminals today are built on the back of a 20-year contract, so one is promising to buy gas for 20 years. If one does not sign such a contract, the cost goes up even more. That is the state of the market right now.

What is interesting in the context of this discussion with the UK is that the EU Commission proposed last week to set up a joint task force for gas procurement. If Ireland wants to be part of that, there would be some sort of agreement with gas passing through UK infrastructure. That may be useful for clarifying or cementing any discussions we have the UK around the transmission of gas, if we want to be part of that gas procurement initiative.