Timmy Dooley (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Towards the end of his presentation, Professor McMullin spoke about risk. He indicated that there was the risk of potential - I do not think he used the term "blackouts" - but the risk associated with the potential of having a scarcity versus the obvious risk to the climate if we embed this kind of infrastructure into our mix. Has Professor McMullin done any analysis on the potential impact on our employment prospects and our capacity to attract investment to the State for the continued growth in our economic activity to meet the demands of our growing population if we were to have a series of blackouts? It is not an absolute position, but the Government is charged on the one hand with ensuring we do not have a blackout but also, on the other, with ensuring we do not continue to emit CO2. You take one risk versus the other. Has Professor McMullin done any risk profiling on the difficulty we will have if we end up having blackouts, and the catastrophic impact that will have on our capacity to attract foreign investment, versus the risk on the other side?