Mr. Jim Gannon:

EirGrid has noted or stated that demand over the past five years has been approximately 9%.

The committee was advised in October of last year that the demand over the next ten years could increase by 28% to 30% or something of that order. That is an increase or an acceleration and a large part of that increase is in the large energy user sector, including data centres. This is part of the demand analysis that has been conducted to date.

I will come back to the issue of data centre connection policy but in terms of demand response more generally, and embedding it, that is essential not just in the shorter term but also in the longer term. When we need to call upon additional generation, it tends to be that which is not already being used by the system. We always call on renewables first. That is what the market seeks so the gap is filled by-----