Ms Avril Ní Shearcaigh:

I will make an additional point on what Deputy Ó Cuív is proposing. The existing electrical cable to the islands covers all the electrical demand on the islands, as it stands. The Government has said that the entire country will have to move away from fossil fuels in the near future. As a result, it is more than likely that all the transport and heat on the islands will be electrified. A significant number of heat pumps have already been installed on the island. This is increasing all the time. The electrical demand on the islands will increase as a result. At present, our 3 MW subsea cable connects us to the mainland. This is the maximum capacity that can be brought to the island via that cable. If we continue to electrify all the heat and transport on the islands, our demand is likely to exceed 3 MW. That cable will not be sufficient for the demand, never mind, as the Deputy said, the export of renewable energy. It will not be sufficient to supply the islands' demand as we move forward.

Ideally, we would like to be able to manage some of that demand locally, produce our own electricity and not rely on importing via the cable, but since we are currently limited to a maximum grid connection of 650 kW, that is not possible either. It highlights the need to look at the existing cable. As far as I know, no plans are in place to replace or upgrade that cable. I have been told by the ESB that it expects the lifetime of the cable to be approximately 60 years and we are about 30 years into that. In the next ten or 20 years at the very most, that cable will not be sufficient. It badly needs to be looked at and while we are doing one job of replacing or laying a new cable, it makes sense to look at what else can be done at the same time in order to save on the costs.