Mr. Nicholas Tarrant:

The numbers today are at 6.4 GW. We need to get to 17 GW onshore. There is considerable investment needed in the electricity network, both at transmission level, which is the equivalent of the motorways, and in distribution. The transmission network makes up about 7,000 km of the 180,000 km I mentioned earlier. Approximately 380 individual projects have been brought forward by EirGrid and will be delivered by ESB Networks. That is a very big body of work. There is an extensive body of work to be done on the distribution network as well.

It is worth noting that we are a regulated entity, as I mentioned in my opening statement, and we go through price review processes that last five years. We are currently in price review No. 5, which will finish at the end of 2025. From 1 January 2026 to the end of 2030, we will be in price review No. 6. We will submit a business plan to the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU, and will go out for stakeholder engagement. We will submit the business plan to CRU at the end of October this year. It will set out our investment programme up to 2030 to enable the achievement of the climate action plan targets. There is a considerable amount of work to do, involving an extensive series of projects, to enable the delivery of the targets and, at the same time, enable us to continue to support the growing economy and population. We are talking about renewables today but there is also the electrification of heat and transport, which is fundamental to achieving the climate action plan targets set out by the Government.