Professor John FitzGerald:

I do not know the answer on electric cars in Sweden. Even with a high carbon price and the price of cars coming down so rapidly, it still is not yet time, even in Sweden. Sweden is interesting. There is nuclear power in Sweden. It has nuclear power and for 20 years has been fully integrated with Norway and Jutland, the main part of Denmark. One of the reasons Denmark has been able to have so much wind power is that it is fully interconnected with Norway. If the wind drops in Denmark, five seconds later, water is released from a dam in Norway. Scandinavia, because it has a lot of hydro power and an integrated system, can make much better use of energy and deploy more renewables. In the case of Ireland, with a target of 70% renewable electricity by 2030, we will need an interconnector to France but even that may not be enough. Research done on this previously suggested that we will need a lot more interconnection with continental Europe. It would be cheaper to interconnect with the UK but for obvious reasons, it is not the most reliable partner at the moment. The tradition in Europe is that the costs of interconnection are shared between the two parties which is relevant in the context of an interconnector with France. In terms of our interconnection with Northern Ireland and Great Britain, Irish consumers paid but British consumers paid nothing. If we do a deal with France and the French contribute to it, alongside the EU, it may actually be-----