Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

That is, as Mr. Melvin has said, why we asked EY to take a look at this and why we are bringing forward for consultation proposals that might change that. There are pros and cons to either approach. It is a question of whether one wants that wide range of bidders coming in, in the context of the scale of what we need to procure, and giving them the certainty on the contract and then ensuring that they deliver or whether one wants to narrow it down to people who have received planning and are further along in the process and potentially exclude potential bidders. There are pros and cons to either approach but it is one of the areas we are looking at.

In one of the auctions we conducted recently, the T-3 auction which secured, if I recall, 1,300 MW, we looked to have projects that had full planning permission because there were significantly advanced projects available to compete in that auction. In response to Senator Dooley, there are pros and cons to either approach. We are consulting on that. It is absolutely something that we take very seriously.