Mr. John Reilly:

On the question of the backup piece, it is important to note that managing demand on the power system is not new in Ireland. We have a very interesting situation in Ireland where we go to sleep at night, unlike most of the rest of Europe. Demand at night time drops to about 2,000 MW and rises at the winter peak to approximately 4,500 to 5,000 MW. Following demands on the power system and variations in that demand day to night, over the weekend, winter to summer and so forth is being done all of the time. The need for backup capacity, as has been explained, is not a new phenomenon. It is very important for people to understand that nobody here is talking about wind ever producing 100% of the electricity demand in Ireland. That is not what is in play here. We need to be sensible about this. At present, 20% of our electricity is coming from wind and that is being managed very well. It has been recognised globally that the management of intermittent yet predictable forms of energy is being done brilliantly in Ireland in the context of the isolated nature of our power system. Increased interconnection with neighbouring power systems will enhance our ability to put more low carbon energy onto the power system, which is a key challenge for Ireland in terms of our de-carbonisation agenda.

We completely agree that there is a need for consultation but it is sometimes difficult to know how best to do it. When we launched our project in October of last year, we held open days in halls in various communities. We had people in those locations for the entire day, which allowed mums on their way home from school runs or others on their way home from work to drop in and engage with us. We endeavour at all times to provide people with the most up-to-date information on what we do, and while I am sure we do not get it right all the time, that is always our intent. There is nothing to hide here. There is nothing terribly secretive about what we are doing. We are endeavouring to follow national and EU energy and environmental policies in a way that is best for the economy and the country while taking on board all the concerns of local communities. That is what we attempt to do. We may not get it right all the time but that is certainly what we try to do.

As I said earlier, as a company we also produce electricity from biomass. We are getting paid a lower price for our onshore wind energy than for our biomass energy. A lot of the biomass we will require in the future will have to be imported because we simply do not have the resources here, unfortunately. We are using the resource that is available in an optimal way. We have tried to develop this resource through an energy crop programme, but for a variety of reasons, that programme has not yet taken off to the extent that we would like. However, we will certainly keep working on it because we believe that the agricultural community in Ireland can play a very big role in helping to secure our energy future.

We also have significant agricultural exports.