Mr. Nicholas Tarrant:

The Deputy has asked a number of questions. I shall start by responding to the first question about ensuring network charges and tarriffs appear on bills.

The CRU approves network charges because the ESB is a regulator monopoly notwithstanding the point made about contestable connections for renewable generators. That goes through a process where our revenue is set every year. As we collect revenue from the suppliers we do not control what goes on the bills that suppliers issue to customers. We have a certain charge and I ask Mr. Duginan to comment on the exact quantity, say, for the distribution network that is charged and passed on to customers.

The Deputy made an important point about building infrastructure and the long-term nature of these investments. Ultimately a company like ours, and the regulatory model for a company like ours, involves investing over decades and then recovering that money through customers' bills. For example, the distribution network is over 45 years but the transmission network is over 50 years. The way to minimise the impact on customer bills in the here and now is to recover that money slowly over time in order to recover those investments.

In the previous session, reference was made to the scale of the network charges. I ask Mr. Duignan to comment on that and on the wider role we have in the network or the system to do with encouraging decarbonisation. Perhaps we will come back to that. Mr. Duignan will comment on the distribution charges.