Mr. Seamus O'Loughlin:

Yes. I have been trying to understand how we got to this point. We are a very large player in the Irish industry. The various State agencies should have oversight of us but we have far more technical expertise than somebody who comes in from outside. We would not get away with some of the things we were getting away with in the UK because the regulators there have the required expertise and experience to ask the real questions and hold suppliers accountable. For example, oil leakage is published annually in the UK in a public report that anyone can see. It is listed as a percentage of overall oil usage. Leakage of sulphur hexaflouride, SF6, is reported annually in the UK. If a provider leaks it must account to Ofgem - the British equivalent of the Commission for Regulation of Utilities, CRU - for why it leaked. Providers are penalised financially for leaks.

Anecdotally I have heard that Belgium only has leakage equivalent to seven bottles of SF6 gas. I do not know how true that is but having spoken to the various experts in the company, my best guess is that Ireland leaks somewhere between 2,000 and 5,000 bottles of SF6 gas. Moneypoint has been leaking for years and we have been putting SF6 gas into it. We have always viewed SF6 as an €800 bottle of gas, but it is not really. I viewed it as a potential €50,000 fine. The guys there are incredibly conflicted. I have found this throughout the country. They are expected to keep gassing up breakers that leak on a regular basis. If the engine of a car was leaking one could just keep topping it up with oil, but that is not sustainable in the long term. SF6 gas seems like a relatively benign issue, but 1 kg is the equivalent of 24 tonnes of CO2. The way we handled it was not sustainable in the current climate.