Mr. Garrett Blaney:

I have just taken over as the chair of European energy regulators. As part of that process, I have engaged with various European regulators on, among other matters, the question of distributed resources. We have debated solar panels on people's roofs and the potential impact of electric vehicles, EVs, and electrification generally as it comes through. The experience at European level has shown that there are good ways and bad ways of doing this and that we could incur significantly higher extra costs. Mr. O'Shea referred to the need to spend much more money on systems and the network, but we need to be careful. Electrification may be the cheapest solution for doing much more at a distribution level, but we need to approach it carefully and in a smart way. Using smart meters and encouraging and allowing consumers to engage and be active players in the market will help with their costs as well as overall costs in the system.

As a regulator, we have been actively engaging with best practice. We have some leadership to show in this regard. There is no standard solution that will necessarily work. Ireland can be a part of delivering that. We have heard about new technologies like blockchain. There are many clever technologies that we can access. We have come in at a good time. The reduction in the cost of the solar resource available in the system has been fundamental in recent years. There is an opportunity for Ireland to tap into that. Not only are we decarbonising, but we are doing so at the least cost and in a way that enhances the competitiveness of the economy and ensures that, rather than adding to consumer poverty, we enhance the consumer's overall cost position.