Mr. Kevin Brady:

To give some context, the UK did not initially sign the north seas offshore grid initiative memorandum because it was in the build-up to the UK elections, so it was under purdah. It subsequently signed it, which is a positive move. There is the Celtic interconnector but there is also a private sector developer developing the Greenlink interconnector, which is a second interconnector from Ireland or a third interconnector from the island of Ireland to the UK. We are very much speaking to our UK colleagues at developer, regulatory and departmental level. We operate on European groups in terms of the offshore groups and the north-south interconnection groups with our UK colleagues. We work closely on that in terms of interconnection, such as the Greenlink interconnector. I do not want to give the impression that we are not speaking and working closely with our UK colleagues, as we always have. The point I was making earlier was that we just cannot start that negotiating phase.

On the UK's energy future being part of a greater Europe, that is absolutely the context in which Ireland needs to be talking. It is not just Ireland and the UK, but Ireland, the UK, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Norway, which is not a member state but very much an energy source for a lot of those countries, including the UK. I mentioned liquefied natural gas, LNG, earlier and there are large LNG facilities in the UK and Ireland is gas-interconnected to the UK. Undoubtedly, a close energy relationship with the UK in the future is a high priority and we are very much dealing with our colleagues there on an ongoing basis.