Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

No new supply has been provided and I emphasise “new” because I realise that existing plants came back on stream in the course of the past 12 months. Surely we have the capacity to plan on the basis of a gradual increase in demand for energy supply, which we are seeing right across Europe, and yet we have not actually provided anything new. That is my first question or statement for comment. My next question relates to plant reliability and assurances that the existing grid and supply infrastructure is capable of staying online. Is there a likelihood of any outage over the course of the next 12 months, with obvious emphasis on the coming three or four months? Will the stakeholders be able to ensure that the other works that are essential to our national grid outside of supply, such as grid planning and connections, continue to receive the necessary focus they require in the next 12 months?

The elephant in the room,is the large-scale energy users. It was touched upon by the Chairman in his opening questions and indeed by the respondents. Has the Minister or the stakeholders met representatives of those large-scale energy users and what mitigation can we expect this winter, should supply become critical?

Notwithstanding what other witnesses have said today, can the Minister state whether we have a written or contractual agreement with the United Kingdom on supply? Perhaps the Minister might explain a little what might happen should an issue arise in the United Kingdom with those essential suppliers of 75% of our gas.

My final question is on the remarks of President von der Leyen in the past 24 hours. My understanding is that the Minister will be having a meeting next week with his fellow energy ministers. Can the Minister highlight, if he has had time to consider it and I appreciate that information is light at this stage, what he considers Ireland’s target for that particular emergency session will be in respect of the emergency intervention into the energy market and what we hope to achieve from that, obviously in agreement with our European counterparts? I thank the Chairman.