Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

For absolute clarity, to meet our target of 80% renewable energy, we will need about 2 GW of additional gas-fired energy generation, with a mixture of combined-cycle and open-cycle turbines, or an open-cycle aeroderivative plant in this case. That is part of the plan and we will need it. It will use less gas because it is only there for back-up, but we need it.

We will not know the exact cost to the consumer. There are all sorts of estimates, which depend on what one counts and how it is measured. We could ask what the costs would have been had our auctions been successful in the first place. This emergency generation seeks to catch up with that. There would have been an underlying cost. We would have needed this backup, but we were not able to deliver it in the auction process, so we are taking the purchase route. Whether one counts that or not, the reality is that we will not know until we purchase the equipment, agree on the installation at sites, and know the related costs. A cost of €40 was mentioned on Committee Stage. I think that will be less. It depends on the purchase price of the generation equipment and the installation price at the sites, which will then accrue.

Any figures we mentioned do not take into account the plan that we would be able to get a resale value and clawback for households and taxpayers in the event that the equipment can be sold at the end of its use in this emergency way. Other countries in Europe are going in the same direction as us, to use much renewable energy, and they will need the backup. I am convinced that there will be demand, whether in Ireland or abroad, for our state-of-the-art Rolls Royce jet engine equipment. Therefore, we will get a resale value which will lower any costs.

We do not have the figure. Anything is speculation in advance of knowing what we pay for the equipment. As soon as we have that, we will share it with the committee.