Mr. Peter O'Shea:

In regard to Deputy Dooley's question on pricing and just to follow up on what the commissioner said, first, it is important to recognise that wholesale prices are approximately half of the retail price. Every movement in wholesale prices will not be seen in full on retail prices. The rest is network costs, supply costs, and also the public service obligation, PSO, levy. The way the PSO works is that when wholesale prices are high, it is low. When wholesale prices are low, it is high. The other comment to make on that is that suppliers buy their fuel stock forward. They hedge their fuel prices with gas or coal or whatever. As a result, changes in wholesale prices are not immediately seen because the actual cost the supplier is seeing is the price they have paid under contract to buy forward.

I can assure Deputy Stanley we are building small-scale generation in both wind and solar. We have entered a joint venture with Kingspan to build out solar on rooftop. The future is going to be a lot of small generation but it is not the only part of the future. There will be a role for larger-scale generation as well, in regulating the grid and making sure that overall balance is maintained.

In terms of smart metering, current timescales indicate the cost-benefit analysis is due to complete in 2018, with installation starting at the end of 2021. It is a project on which to drive forward with the regulator, ESB Networks and a number of other players.

I do not have anything to add to the commentary on the green bond that we had a couple of months ago. It is primarily an area for Government policy to decide how the Government wants to support the retrofit of homes. It is expensive. The cost is €20,000 to €30,000 per home and we must operate within that realm.