Mr. Fintan Slye:

It increases the capacity of the grid to move power between nodes, and we will be able to move significantly more power, for example, from the Cork-Kerry region to the eastern seaboard and the Dublin region. It increases the capacity.

I mentioned earlier that in addition to the deployment of series compensation, there is also new high-voltage cable as part of that overall suite of measures underneath the Shannon - obviously, we will need to engage with communities and consenting authorities as we bring that forward - and also a series of line up-ratings around the south east in order to increase the overall capacity of the grid in other areas in order to make it work.

In the case of the North-South interconnector, unfortunately, that meshed transition network quite simply is not there because it was never developed as such. It was developed and planned, and is operated, as two separated grids and, therefore, unfortunately, there is no transmission network on which to deploy this technology, and what is needed is another link or piece of infrastructure with the North. This leads us down the road of asking, if one is to deploy that, what are the options for doing so. The options really boil down to high-voltage AC overhead lines, which is the option we have identified as the preferred option and brought into the planning process, and the technical alternative, which we have discussed here, of deploying high-voltage DC technology, which enables one to go underground over considerably greater distances, and certainly enough for the North-South interconnector, but has a number of technical issues.