Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Foley for his opening statement. Like other members, I thank him for the guidance on policy, as well as the work EirGrid is doing. He pointed to a fairly sharp issue relating to the failure of the capacity markets and stated they are not being framed correctly. Dermot McCarthy prepared a report on what went wrong in the past. He stated that the risks in the scale of transition we were doing were underestimated and pointed to planning risks, as well as capacity and design that was difficult to get and implement. I refer to the payments system where there is more renewables and, presumably, the gas suppliers would not get paid as much. What has happened following the McCarthy report? Have there been discussions in this regard? There was a public consultation by the SEM committee on the way forward. What are the defects now? What are the proposals for remedying them? Do we need the Department to step in and reshape the relationships that exist in this context? What are the remedies in that regard?