Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

-----but on the basis that this was a T-4 auction, there is a standard which states that a gas plant takes about seven years. When we go to tender, we expect people to have done at least three years' work prior to that, if we are going for a T-4 auction, which was the case in this instance. I am not an expert on this but the information that has been provided to me seems to suggest that the CRU allowed people in who had not done their homework or advanced their project to a point that others had. There was an understanding that approximately 800 MW in capacity was shovel ready.

That would have provided sufficient supply to allow for an open tender process but it was broadened and made wider. The regulator allowed more people in. It seems that those that were not ready bid low, won the contracts, or in elements, 400 MW, and did not deliver. It is put to me that this suited the ESB and that it was a commercial decision on its behalf because it had legacy plant that would be drawn on anyway. In other words, it was pushing somebody else out of the way for its own benefit.