Mr. Jim Gannon:

What I am trying to get at is that it is not just demand growth of data centres that has been the driver for that in particular. The 500 MW of generation that was due to come into place that is now no longer going to come into place was due to come into place in advance of next winter. That is one of the major contributors to the need for that temporary generation. Again, in looking at the solutions to the longer-term challenge, we are not ignoring the space that data centres take or the fact they are the largest homogenous grouping of demand. There is a significant challenge that is unique to them but there will also be some opportunity to mitigate it. We are not hiding from that. In terms of next winter, it would have been contributory as opposed to primary, without question.

The Deputy's final point was with regard to planning applications. Yes, we are a prescribed body and, yes, we are provided with environmental impact statements in order to provide comment on them. Along with Senator Boylan’s comments relating to the climate Bill and the fact we are now revising our strategy for the next period, we will begin to look at all of those levers that are open to us, where we can contribute and where we can continue to take into account environmental factors in our decision-making, as appropriate with regard to the legislation. I thank the Deputy for noting that.