Alan Farrell (Dublin Fingal, Fine Gael)
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Continuing that theme through to security of supply, I wish to discuss the interconnection, offshore and other options that we are exploring, as well as future technological developments, in particular those relating to hydrogen, which fascinates not just the Chairman, but me.

I am very interested at looking at interconnector delivery. As far as I am aware, we are looking at approximately 36 months for completion of the North-South interconnector. As I mentioned, we are also looking at six to seven years for the completion of the connector to France. This will bring us to between 2026 and 2028 before we have fully operational interconnectors. This is on the basis that everything runs smoothly, which it never does here but let us assume for a moment it will.

In 2025, we will close Moneypoint, which is capable of generating 25% of the country's electricity requirements. Will we be able to provide security of supply to the network? Demand is ever increasing, and will continue to do so as we move towards electric vehicles and have more consumers of electricity as our population grows. Our population has grown by 1.2 million since 2000. It is important that we ask these questions. Is it appropriate to shut down Moneypoint completely? Will it be on standby for us? If it is on standby, are we speaking about the continued burning of coal or will we be reliant on the burning of heavy fuel oils, which I know it is capable of burning in certain cases? Is there an alternative supplier of backup energy generation in the case of those interconnectors not being delivered on time?