Mr. Conall Bolger:

The number one issue for the industry is getting access to the network. What happens is the developers cannot go into the grid process until they have planning. They cannot go into planning until they have optioned the land because that is good practice. At that point, depending on what has happened, the farmer could have been waiting a period of time. In the Millvale project that was energised last week the farmers were first optioned in 2016. The developers want to deliver these projects quickly and more quickly than they are being delivered. Ireland is something of a laggard in the length of time it takes to get these projects up and running. My association was set up in 2013 and I am talking to the committee about the first energised project in 2022. The grid is a big part of that problem. What happens is the developer goes into the grid connection process for a particular project. The proposal gets taken away, a lot of studies are done, there is an annual process and then an offer goes back. The developer has no certainty going into that process on how much it will cost or how long it will take and when it gets the offer back it still does not know.