Mr. Nicholas Tarrant:

On the issue of resources, we have been very successful over the last number of years in bringing people into the ESB to deal with our retirement profile and build our resources for the future. We need our contract partners to continue to grow. There are challenges in the sector in general in terms of the resources that are needed for what is coming. I do not just mean investment for us and the electricity network, but also for renewable projects. We have had support from the Government through the Department of enterprise to extend work permits to people coming from outside the EEA. That process has been under way for the last couple of years. It is important and will be a vehicle for us and our contract partners to grow the resources for the years ahead.

On the point on solar, we have seen huge growth in rooftop solar over the last couple of years. At this stage, we are close to approximately 140,000 individual homeowners having solar panels and it is growing at something in the region of 900 a week. It is growing very significantly. It helps with decarbonisation of the network and with our carbon emissions. It also helps householders with their bills because they are producing their own electricity. What it does not help with it is winter peak demand. Our network is under the most constraint when we have very high demand on winter days. That is the time we need our substations, and the generators in general, to be available to cope with peak demand. Obviously, solar generates more in daylight during the summer and less in the winter.