Ms Aoife MacEvilly:

In terms of the peat PSO, the contracts for the two plants were of 15 years' duration. As I understand it, if there is no successor co-firing with biomass contract, the contract for the first plant will end this time next year and the second one will end in early 2020. Given the way that the PSO works, the final settlement may not be until the following year but it will effectively be out of the PSO levy system at that point. We will no longer be supporting peat generation through the PSO.

The PSO is allowed, under Irish and EU law, to support electricity generation that would not normally be delivered by the market which is beneficial either from a renewable, low carbon perspective or from a security of supply perspective. The individual rules have to be agreed through the state aid clearance process. There is a complex set of very specific state aid documents that outline exactly what the money can be used for, no more and no less. There is also legislation which binds the CRU in terms of calculating the payments. It would be difficult to continue collecting the money and to use it for a different purpose but there may be other ways of funding a just transition. That is a broader question relating to issues such as carbon tax or carbon price wars.