Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

There were questions on consumer protections and smart tariffs. We have installed approximately 920,000 smart meters and we will have 1.1 million installed by the end of this year. That is the latest update from ESB Networks. That will amount to more than 50% of households, and more smart meters will be rolled out next year. We really want to optimise the use of those meters now to support customers with better information and tariff options that might help them understand the challenge of the increasing cost overall and how to save money to any extent.

As the Minister has clearly outlined, all prices are going up for all customers at a level we have not seen before. That is of significant concern for all of us. With the network tariffs we are trying to ensure there is an incentive. The peak may increase, relatively speaking and on the basis that all tariffs are going up, and it is about providing a relative incentive to move energy off peak. We are doing that through network tariffs and we will be challenging suppliers around how they are providing attractive tariffs to customers to help them understand how to save money.

We have poorer availability of the existing fleet. In some cases that is not just about the older plant, although they are challenged by being older. In some cases it arises from some of our newer gas-fired generators. We think part of this is because we are at a point, with the level of renewable penetration that we have, that some of the plants are not running consistently and in a predictable manner. They can be dependent on the wind, with less predictability, and this sometimes gives rise to challenges around their maintenance and so on. That is part of the issue and something we are working on and monitoring.

Within this we think it is worth retaining some of the older plant and that is part of our programme of actions. That work is under way. Given that they are older and tend to emit more carbon, they would effectively be there as back-up rather than something we would expect to see consistently used on a day-to-day basis. It is all about enhancing the options we have available. As Mr. Doyle said, it about what we have to support security of supply when the wind is not blowing and interconnectors are not flowing.