Mr. Cathal Marley:

Some things have been done already. We are fortunate that, like the ESB, we have multi-year funding through the price review process, which is working. The regulator is constrained on resources but it is a very well respected regulatory regime. That is really good - not every country has this - and the regime works well. The new planning legislation is not perfect, but it is positive.

The main barriers for us are once we get planning, even for the large, critical projects, are access and engaging with landowners. This is becoming increasingly difficult and challenging. We need political support at all levels in this regard. That is important because politicians are influential in local areas when, alongside ourselves, explaining projects. We do a huge amount of public engagement. Engaging and working with the political system to explain why this is critical infrastructure and is needed is important.

Mr. Tarrant covered substations, not lines, and access to land in urban areas, particularly public land. It would be good if we could get that planned. Overall, there needs to be clearer interaction with businesses - there is already a lot of interaction with businesses and developers - on where they want to locate. It is not always a case of them saying they want to go here, here or here. It is more plan led and there is more interaction so that, whether it is a housing stage, business or generation, it is done in a way that we all know what is happening and can direct them into the right locations as much as possible. This would also really help.