Mr. Jim Gannon:

I will answer the Senator's first two questions or comments as distinct from those two, if that is okay.

The consultation on connections policy relating to data centres in the context of security of supply was just that - a consultation limited to the security of supply challenge. It did not have direct regard to the decarbonisation policy that would flow from that. I will take this matter somewhat separately.

The annual tariff process was not brought into the consultation because it was not part of the annual tariff process. In previous iterations of our consultation papers, we noted the large energy user balancing and the fact that we were considering rebalancing in our reviews. Following the consultation on connections, there was the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which resulted in the development of the national energy security framework in March under the energy security emergency group, ESEG. This placed urgency on rebalancing and the way in which we treated the matter. It resulted in a more urgent response than the one we were working on, which was to review all of the network tariffs over the course of a multi-annual programme. They were two separate subject matters, in that the large energy user balancing and rebalancing would have been considered in publications in previous tariff years whereas the specific piece around data centres would just have been considered in the context of security of supply at the time.

Since November 2021, we have seen the Government policy statement on security of supply as well as the Government policy statement on data centres in national economic policy. We have seen the publication of the sectoral carbon ceilings. We have also seen efforts relating to, and an action for the CRU regarding, a demand-side strategy.

In terms of contending with demand growth and ensuring that we mitigate same as regards security of supply and carbon, and notwithstanding the fact that we could have acted sooner, we are acting responsibly and early. It is important that a demand-side strategy that looks at economic growth and the decarbonisation of same be taken across Departments and agencies and that all involved ensure the implementation of the principles set out in the Government statement on data centres in national economic policy. This is how we can bring success to the decarbonisation of domestic economic growth from SME level up to large industry level, not just data centres.