Lynn Boylan (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all the witnesses for their contributions so far. My first question is for the Minister. He mentioned in his opening statement the demand side of 15% voluntary. Will he outline his view on that? Many European countries have already published their ideas around how they will reach those reductions in demand but we have not really seen anything from the Government on what it is and how it will be communicated to industry and households.

The other issue, which others have touched on, is about the EU market redesign. I appreciate there now seems to be a shift in the Government's position in favour of reform and the decoupling of gas and renewables. In June, the Minister told my colleague, Deputy Rose Conway-Walsh that he did not support dismantling the investment, regulatory and markets system. It is important that there has been a shift and that we will see reform of the market because the coupling of gas with renewables is punishing households.

What I also want to bring up with the three stakeholders here today are the RESS auctions. In March of this year, I flagged concerns that were being heard from various stakeholders. In the context of the RESS auctions, we have the highest renewable energy costs in the EU. At that stage, they were about €90 and we flagged the fact that we were concerned about the new RESS auction. We were given reassurances by stakeholders at that meeting. We were told: "Don't worry. It is a competitive process and it will deliver." Instead, what we saw is it is up around 150 MW in the RESS scheme, so it is more expensive for renewable energy than it was before. Has the Minister given any thought to the call for the task force to address the concerns around why we have the highest renewable energy costs in the EU?

This is really important. People need to know that we are paying more for our bills now because the RESS auction has delivered higher renewable energy prices. I understand the public service obligation, PSO, will go into negative in October because of the way the market is regulated in the EU. If we had delivered renewable energy at an even lower cost, households would have received a bigger return on that because the renewable energy providers in the RESS projects would be paying more back into it. It is important that we address the fundamental issues with the RESS auction that has resulted in Ireland having the highest renewable energy costs.